Drive
- Genre: Drama
- Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
- Stars: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston
- Rate: *** 1/2
You might not notice the car he drives on the streets of Los Angeles — a bland Chevy Impala — but you won’t be able to take your eyes off Ryan Gosling in Drive. Gosling, playing a Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a wheelman for criminals, rocks like a young Steve McQueen or Robert De Niro.
Gosling’s character, known only as Driver, has only two rules for the crooks who employ him. He’ll wait five minutes and five minutes only for them to do their dirty work and hop back inside his Impala to evade the cops. And he doesn’t carry a gun.
Driver has almost supernatural skills behind the wheel, and he’s got the “sang froid” to match. At least until his violent streak is activated — watch out for those boots.
But there’s more to Driver. He’s a romantic at heart, with his eye on his neighbour, Irene (Carey Mulligan), a single mother who needs his help. He’ll do anything to assist her, and anything is really something, especially when best-laid plans turn sour.
Director Nicolas Winding Refn (Valhalla Rising) has created a film of oil, blood and bone that’s not for the easily offended. He doesn’t let the camera look away even in scenes of extreme violence. Refn may not have reinvented the wheel of the auto action movie, but he has certainly revved its engine.
Extras include several making-of featurettes.
