Drive

Or as I like to call it, Ryan Gosling mumbles and stares at things. 

Drive is the story of a part-time stunt driver / part-time mechanic / part-time criminal getaway driver played by Ryan Gosling. He falls in love with a married woman (Carey Mulligan) but when her husband (Oscar Isaacs) returns home from prison, Gosling forgoes his feelings and tries to help out this couple, especially when the husband is in trouble with a gang... or a crime family... or something like that, that's never really clear actually. Without any spoilers, something goes wrong. 

The director of this movie is a gentleman by the name of Nicolas Winding Refn. Refn is a Dannish director who is one of those artsy film makers. His work is not really well known and he doesn't really care. He's got a style to his movies and as long as he is able to do movies in his style, he's making his dreams come true. And for that, I say way to go Refn! Way to follow your dreams!

That being said, its not my cup of tea. Is it a well made movie, yes it is. Is the story good? It's decent enough. I just wasn't fully satisfied with the overall film. 

Ryan Gosling's role in this movie is this meme. He just stares. The first hour of this movie is very VERY slow. And Gosling has maybe 10 lines in the first hour. Whenever he's on screen he's just staring into space, or staring into the camera, or staring at someone else, but its as if Refn saw this meme and said, I can make a movie out that. 

I do have to give Gosling credit. His acting without any dialogue is very good. He's able to give looks and stares that do communicate emotions and he does it well. And the movie does pick up in the second act. 

The only other complaint that I have with Gosling is that he mumbles a lot in this movie. Not a huge complaint, just a bad time when I raise the volume to hear what he's saying and then suddenly there's a gunshot, or there's a loud scene. Luckily this didn't happen too often but it still happened. Again, not a huge complaint, just a note.

This movie surprised me and actually turned out to be a very violent movie. For example: a guy gets his head stomped in. Another guy gets stabbed in the throat. Another person gets their head blown off by a shotgun and you see the bullets tear the head open. Ryan Gosling is brutal in this movie. Not all the things I just mention he does, but all the action kind of detracts any misconceptions that this is an artsy romance movie where Gosling's character from the Notebook is just driving a car. No, that image is soon dismissed when you see the degree of violence this movie takes.

Carey Mulligan does a good job in the movie, as she always does. I personally think she's not utilized enough in movies and that needs to change. 

She, like Gosling, had a syndrome of just staring in the movie. And when it came to these two, I actually thought their stares were charming. There's actually a scene where these two just stare at each other for a good thirty seconds and don't say thing. You know every girl that was hipster enough to see this movie was wishing they were Carey Mulligan and I'll admit it, for a minute I was jealous too...

As the movie is mainly focused on Gosling, the supporting characters are just that, supporting characters. Bryan Cranston is in the movie and it just made me love that man even more. I'm in the middle of Breaking Bad and I love how Cranston can play a variety of characters. His character in this movie is Gosling's boss who just can't win. From the very beginning, I had a very bad feeling about his character and it made me care about him more. It was like looking at a 3 legged dog. Lovable but screwed from the beginning. 

There are other characters in very small roles. Again the focus is mostly on Gosling. Christina Hendricks in it... but barely. I don't really get the point of her character but oh well. The only other person I'll mention is Ron Perlman. I don't think Ron Perlman is that great of an actor, however, this performance was pretty good. Again, it wasn't very complex but it was good nonetheless. Way to go Ron Perlman. 

Now I'll be the first to say that I respect anybody who is willing to risk criticism for their passion for creative work. The one thing I would say about Drive is that there are a lot of moments where nothing is happening, nothing of substance is going on but its meant to be "Art" or have a deeper meaning. There was actually a part, several parts in fact, where the camera is just pointed at Gosling, in a car, staring... that's it. I'm sure there's suppose to be a deep meaning or interpretation of that, but there were also times that I thought my Netflix had frozen. 

Drive is a movie intended to be an "Art" piece. And if you're into that kind of movie, you'll love Drive. If you don't, you'll probably fall asleep (which I did the first time I tried watching it). But this movie wasn't made for you if that's you. 

Overall, the movie isn't my cup of tea but I'm glad I saw it. There's nothing awful about this movie, its just not my kind of movie. I appreciate it for what it is and we can part ways now better people. 

Are you an Artsy movie person? What is your favorite artsy movie? Who knows maybe I'll check it out and you'll get me started on Artsy films. Comment below. Let me know what you think.