Film Review: Drive; A Hit or A Miss?

It does seem like we've seeing Ryan Gosling in quite a lot of films lately, we've seen him in "Crazy stupid love", "The ides of March", and now he wows us in a portrayal of a man simply called "Driver" in this violent neo-noir, stylized mix of violent imagery and visual style. Yet despite its promise, there are still a lot of plot holes and questions posed while viewing the film.

Gosling is a nameless man who works as a stunt driver, mechanic and getaway driver and lives in a low-rent apartment complex. There he meets his love interest, Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her son, Benicio (Kaden Leos) when he gives them a ride home from a local market after they encounter some car trouble.

The Driver eventually spends more time with Irene and Benicio even when Irene's husband, Standard, comes back home a free man from prison. Standard owes a man named Cook (James Biberi) "protection money" and threatens to go after his wife and son if the balance isn't settled by robbing a pawn shop. The Driver agrees to help Standard and volunteers as his driver to and from the pawn shop. After that, it's all downhill from there.

The film is reminiscent of Walter Hill's 1978 car chase film, The Driver and Michael Mann's Collateral and there is no question about whether you're meant to notice it or not. It is clearly made to entertain a certain demographic of movie lovers, mainly the ones who are into genre movies.

Overall, Drive was an aesthetically beautiful slick action thriller, but is actually a poor reconstruction of genre movie clichés that entertain some viewers while angering others.

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