I've been hearing a lot of acclaim about the Ryan Gosling action-thriller-gangster-film Drive. Besides my friends (the same friends who said "Dude, fuck 'Fast Five'....let's go see 'Priest' instead") praising the film, Rotten Tomatoes gave it an extremely favorable 93%, while IMDb.com gave it a solid 8.0 out of 10.
Judging from the trailers, I didn't know too much about the film, and had chalked it up to something I may want to view at some point, but I wasn't dying to see.
Obviously..I'm about to convey to you that I saw it.
And, judging from the title of this post, I'm going to tell you that it was majorly depressing.
Coming back home for a little R&R, I thought I'd sit down with the fam and watch the flick, ya know..to get a little family time in.
I was told ahead of time there was a gruesome scene involving a hammer, but I wasn't expecting to see too much violence from the hands of Mr. Tween Heart-throb himself; Ryan Gosling.
I was, however, proven wrong rather quickly. (Source)
Hollllyyyy Dog Excrement.
*******************SPOILERS *******************
Friendos, if you want to see a movie with brilliant cinematography, but filled with as much fork eye gouging, kitchen knife throat stabbing, shotgun to the head blasting, straight edge razor artery cutting, boot kicking heads in, and drowning as one can stomach in an extremely slow and drawn out film with as little speaking as humanly possible....then this is the film for you.
I don't know where I stand on the film. I certainly give Ryan Gosling brass ball points for being a part of this production. The cinematography does extremely well to show how isolated Gosling, named simply as "Driver", is from the rest of the world. It is purposefully slow...but a little too slow at certain points.
Plot wise, Driver does odd jobs here and there, doing car stunt work for movies while on the side working as a getaway driver for shady activity. The first opening sequence showcases his skills as a driver, which is made even more convincing by Gosling's attitude and style, which rival that of James Dean.
He eventually walks into the life of his neighbor, a married woman, Irene (played by Carey Mulligan), and her young son. This is obviously the supposed love interest, and Driver becomes close with Irene and her son. Unfortunately, Irene happens to be married to a fine gentleman getting out of prison. Lovely. What else?
Ah, well said gentleman-husband-friendo owes certain individuals prison protection money. That he cant pay back unless he robs a suspicious pawn shop. Driver, out of the goodness of his heart, and through the subconscious thoughts of wanting to bang Irene, decides to help prison-man by being his gettaway driver for the job, which he arranges through the extortionists that after said job-Irene's husband will owe no more debt. A woman, who also owed money, accompanies them on the heist, anndddddddd what do you know--its a set up.
You see, earlier in the film you meet Nino, a Mafiaso working out of pizza parlor. He conspires, without his partner in crime, another gangster named Bernie Rose, to hit a pawn shop being used by "the family" (aka the East Coast Mob) and take their starter money; as they were going to try and set up shop in town/muscle in on Nino and Rose's profits. Obviously, Irene's husband, the other woman, and unwittingly Driver, were expendable patsies for the job who were supposed to get the money and then be disposed of.
Irene's husband is shot at the pawn shop, and his woman accomplice is later, (and gruesomely in slow motion) dispatched via the particularly nicety of shotgun-to-side-of-face.
Thus, Driver is pretty much screwed. He's left over with $1 million that he doesn't want, and which makes him a target.
Have no fear though. You saw the photo above, correct? Gosling is a calm, collective, and fuckingbatshitsociopathiccrazy lethal mute. The guy, SPOILER, stalks down Nino in a freaking rubber mask, and after scaring the living shit out of the guy, subsequently drowns him in the Ocean.
Yeah. Try to fuck with me. I dare you. (Source)
This is after he turned a guys face into jelly at the soles of his boots, right in front of Irene. Did he want to expose to Irene the dark nature of his heart? No. And the cinematography conveys that. Did he knock the guy out, have a chance to walk away and not repeatedly kick the guy in the head until it caved in? Yes. But he didn't.
So not only did Driver inadvertently help to get Irene's husband killed, but he also now has absolutely zero chance of being a part of her life.
I don't want to spoil the end of the movie, partly because I'm still trying to shift through it and see how I feel about it. I can tell you, that for some of you, the ending of Drive may mirror on the side of No Country for Old Men, in which you stare at the screen for a couple of minutes while the credits roll and quietly say to yourself "what. the. fuck."
All in all, if you don't mind gratuitous and extremely violent imagery, I'd say its worth a shot. I'm forewarning you though, it is slow. There's an artistic reasoning behind it, but Gosling practically doesn't speak for a large portion of the movie. However, the soundtrack is perfect for the film, there's good cinematography, and the acting is great. It is not, in any way shape or form, an uplifting film.
How would I rate it as of now?
I have no idea. Good LORD..that movie was depressing. Not to mention crazy-violent. At this point...I'd be leaning towards a possible 7 out of 10.
So maybe at the end of it all....you should just go rent a comedy instead.
--FIN--
