Drive

Evan and I saw Drive last night, along with a couple of Evan’s labmates. Evan got two trailers (Sherlock Holmes and The Ides of March) and I got one ( I can’t remember which one), but Immortals didn’t count. You hear me Evan? IMMORTALS DIDN’T COUNT!

Anyway, Drive opens with a heist in which Ryan Gosling is the wheelman. He explains the rules on the phone (why do getaway driving movies have rules?) then waits while the robbery’s in progress. Once the thieves are in the car, he sets off. It’s more tense than action-y (especially with the simple soundtrack behind it. More like an electronic pulse than a beat), and more about avoiding detection from the cops than evading them in a high speed chase. So it was more of a low speed drive than anything, ending in the parking garage of the LA Forum (or suspiciously similar building), where a basketball game was letting out. The members of the car blend into the crowd and escape. Nifty.

From there we see Gosling go about his life. He doesn’t say much. He works as a stunt driver in the movies, under a nice guy played by Bryan Cranston (finally allowed some hair). He also works in Cranston’s garage as a mechanic. Apparently, Gosling is just super-awesome at everything cars.

He seems to be drifting through life, until he helps his neighbour (Carey Mulligan – adorably cute) with her car. He’s drawn quietly into her life, and the life of her young son. Mulligan and Gosling spend most of the first hour casting longing gazes or sheepish grins at each other.

The plot starts going when Mulligan’s husband gets released from jail. He gets beat up when he refuses to do a ‘job’ with the members of the gang he owes protection money to from jail. After the gang threatens Mulligan and her son, Gosling gets involved as the driver for the job.

Things go wrong when the husband is killed by the supposed victim of the robbery. Things also start to get brutally violent. We see heads getting shot with shotguns, chests getting stabbed, skulls being beaten into paste, arteries opened, forks in eyes, and jugulars bleeding out.

So you’d think this movie would be violent enough for me. I’m not sure. It’s certainly violent, but the violence is also done very quickly. I mean, after one shotgun round, it’s not necessary to have a fight. It’s pretty much over after the trigger is pulled.

So the violence is blatant, but quickly over. And with a movie called drive, I expected a car chase. Nope. Just the beginning. Certainly, there is a lot of driving. But it should’ve been called Drive in the same way the Pride and Prejudice could have been called “Fancy Houses.” Yes, a large portion of the film took place while driving. But most of the important stuff was done outside of the car.

When I complained about the lack of car chases to Evan, he reminded me it was an indie movie (thus the three company logos at the beginning of the movie) and had probably spent the entire budget on blood packs.

The soundtrack was good. Some of the electronic pulse stuff. Some ephemeral music for happy times and longing looks. I know the perfect band for music like that, but I doubt that the makers have ever heard of the Faunts.

It’s not quite as disappointing as Faster, because having Gosling in a movie kind of points to a certain respectability (and thus, less action), whereas The Rock implies action and lots of it. Still, they both promised car chases and lots of guns, and left us with nothing but fake blood. So I’m going to give it a rating of cheap DVD, if only for the Ryan Gosling fans. He’s a good actor (watch The Believer and be blown away), so kindly stick to acting movies, and let me have my mindless back.