Original review – September 18, 2011 | Updated review August 12, 2013

Updated review****

This movie is a classic. I had a couple of original problems based on my initial view. The preview made it seem like it would be a completely different movie. I hadn’t prepared myself for the violence or all of the overlapping storylines that were going on. I thought I would watch Ryan Gosling drive bad guys around and avoid the police. The movie trailer is essentially the film’s first five minutes (nothing more, nothing less). I expected something different, which is why my initial review was lower than it is now.

I loved Gosling and Mulligan. I loved the way the unspoken attraction they had for one another. I loved how Gosling did everything he could, not getting attached to somebody he couldn’t just walk away from in five minutes, but how circumstances kept driving them together to the point where he would do anything to keep them happy and safe.

I couldn’t quite piece together parts of the storyline on my first watch. I won’t reveal them here because they are spoilers, but it is the part of the movie where everything goes wrong. Rather than try to enjoy the last 30 minutes of the film, I wanted to figure out what just happened and why, but I couldn’t, which was frustrating for me. I liked Cranston more this go around. I wasn’t as big a fan of Brooks or Perlman, but they effectively served their purpose in the movie. I continued to love the sound.

But the development of Gosling’s character gripped me (especially since I’ve seen him in many movies since). This character is one of the top five I’ve seen him play.

Plot 9/10 (now that I understand it better)
Character Development 8.5/10
Character Chemistry 9/10
Acting 10/10
Screenplay 8.5/10
Directing  8/10
Cinematography 9/10
Sound 10/10
Hook and Reel 10/10 (the first scene is incredible)
Universal Relevance 7.5/10
89.5%

Original review****

Ryan Gosling’s (Blue Valentine, Crazy, Stupid, Love.) Drive, his second of three big-time movies in 2011, isn’t a particularly bad movie, but it isn’t a particularly good movie either. Of all of the films that came out in the first eight months of 2011, this was my most anticipated one. I’m very excited about the movies that will be released during awards season, but the films released between January and September have been, at best, average. When I first saw the preview for Drive, I thought it looked very cool. And because it starred Ryan Gosling, it was a given that I would see it in the theater. Director Nicolas Winding Refn (Pusher, Fear X) appears to have a cast of stars and a good story to work with, but he is way over his head. This movie steers in way too many directions.

Gosling stars as The Driver. He has no name other than Kid, which his boss Shannon (Bryan Cranston – television’s Breaking Bad and Malcolm in the Middle) calls him. The Driver is a mechanic and a stunt driver who dreams of being a stock car racer. Those are his part-time jobs known to everybody. Nobody knows that he is also a driver for hire, meaning that he can be the guy who drives armed robbers to safety after pulling off a heist for the right price. The Driver is a loner. He is friendly but has no friends of his own. He also has no real history. He keeps to himself whenever he can. He helps pull off these heists at night and returns to work the next day as if nothing happened. He remains unfazed if people are injured or killed during these armed robberies. The Driver is not an evil man. One of his rules is that he won’t carry a gun and doesn’t want to know the particulars of the crime. His job is to get the men away.

However, his loner ways change when he becomes friends with his apartment neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan – An Education, Never Let Me Go) and her young son Benicio. Over a short period, the two adults become friends while the Driver takes a liking to the young boy. These two people cause the Driver to develop real human emotions, perhaps for the first time. When the two become endangered, the Driver slowly relies less on his mind to make decisions and more on his heart. The problem is that Refn wants us to believe that a 30-year-old man can change how he operates and carries himself overnight because it makes his story more exciting.

The film did a few things very well. For all of its holes and coincidences that were so frequent that they became too convenient for storytelling, it did a great job of filming Gosling. There were dozens of times when the film just panned in on him. We always knew that Gosling’s mind was in motion. We didn’t know exactly what he was thinking, but we knew he was always thinking. He was aware of his surroundings. He knew there were decisions to be made. But he still looked cool, calm, and calculated while making these decisions. It became masterful at times. However, in the end, when I reflected on this component, I couldn’t help but think that Gosling’s character change was too drastic. It was difficult to believe this calculating man would make so many decisions based on pure emotion at the end of the movie. The character development could have been better.

The second thing that the movie did very well was the music. There was background music throughout 50% or more of this movie. It was very subtle, making the moments of silence stand out that much more. The music didn’t always flow with the film, but I believe Refn did that intentionally. I’m not sure I would have noticed it if I hadn’t paid attention to it early. Once I started paying attention to it, I saw it that much more. Again, it was helpful because it contrasted the moments of silence nicely. The acting in this movie was also fantastic. Gosling did not disappoint, while Mulligan and Cranston were equally as good.

All in all, I was disappointed. I wanted so much more out of this movie. It went in too many different directions, though, and as realistic as it was initially, it became something completely unusual and unbelievable in the end.