Secondhand Reviews: "Drive"

Rated R for graphic, brutal violence and strong language, as well as a very brief bit of nudity.

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We've seen plenty of movies from Hollywood about crime and criminals. No shortage of those. And those of us who live in cities with thriving art house theatres have sometimes caught an example or two of what that genre is like in other countries, sometimes just a touch artier than your standard Hollywood action flick. But what would a Hollywood-made film be like, featuring Hollywood stars, as filmed by a foreign director with a few of those foreign touches? Now we know: the result is "Drive", a film that I think should be familiar enough to U.S. audiences that they'll get what they came for, but also offers a bit more on which to ruminate.

Ryan Gosling stars as a part-time mechanic who also works as a stunt driver for action movies. But at night he puts those driving skills to work at the job where he makes his REAL money: he hires himself out as a getaway driver for robberies (making it clear that he never carries a gun and does not actually DO the robbery, just drive). It's a fairly comfortable living, until he falls in love with a neighbor (played by Carey Mulligan), whose husband is off in prison and not expected to return. They form a nice little relationship until to their surprise her husband IS released... and with his return come some of the nasty criminal types he knew in prison, and when Gosling becomes involved trying to help him get free from them, things REALLY get dangerous.

Director Nicholas Wending Refn is best known for the British release "Bronson", a brutally violent prison film, and the second half of "Drive" is somewhat reflective of that movie. But for the first hour or so, it's a remarkably artistic and quietly reflective movie, in which we really get to know a bunch of secretive characters (as much as we possibly CAN know them). The movie's first half is alternately a sweet and touching love story, a dramatic character study, and an impressively made piece of thoughtful cinema. Then, of course, everything starts crashing, blowing up and getting bloody, but by that point, the characters have established themselves so solidly as actual people that it isn't just the usual stick-figure non-entities going through the action movie paces.

The acting goes a long way toward making it all real. Ryan Gosling's character has absolutely no back story on screen... you don't see what he used to be before the criminal life took hold... but his amazing talent for conveying worlds of emotion with the slightest of gestures and facial expressions is put to great use here, as we realize that for all his willingness to take part in dangerous, illegal activities there's still a sweet and kindly little boy not far underneath the surface. It's only natural that the similarly-natured Mulligan and her young son would fill a need in him that his current life style doesn't, and that they would feel similarly about him. And most memorable of all is Albert Brooks as a criminal mastermind that Gosling takes a job for. We all know Brooks as a funny guy, the ultimate sad sack comedian, but he's a true revelation here as a sinister, callous and morally bankrupt gangster who would just as soon murder anyone in his way as have to deal with them any other way. The man is truly scary. And Ron Perlman offers some actual comic relief as his right hand man, a guy who seriously needs to be reminded that he is NOT, in fact, black, and might want to stop talking like a gangsta.

Refn shoots much of the film as an art house release, and indeed in some areas it is playing in art houses in addition to commercial multiplexes. There are a surprising amount of quiet, low key moments in the first half when we see Gosling behind the wheel on the way to or from a job just reflecting wordlessly, and the cinematography and musical score give you an approximation of what those thoughts might be. And when the real action begins, it's the visceral Sam Peckinpah "Wild Bunch" style, violence depicted as being every bit as shocking and ugly as it really is, not at all romanticized. Whether it's the quiet moments or the action filled ones, this is a movie that's constantly tugging at your emotions one way or another.

And it's also a movie that doesn't always follow the expected pathways of a typical Hollywood story, which is something that it took me a while to fully realize. In this respect it actually reminds me a bit of a number of Hong Kong gangster movies, few of which get shown in the U.S. theatrically, in particular one called "Where A Good Man Goes". You figure you can see a mile ahead where this is going, and then suddenly you don't. I don't mean to make it sound as if "Drive" is the greatest crime movie ever made... it has its faults, too. But all of these unusual elements added together make for a rather unusual but worthwhile take on this genre, at least for those who are able to deal with the second half's bloodshed. For anyone who might not have thought Ryan Gosling was natural casting for a career criminal in a violent crime picture... well, you know better now.