Drive

Movie: Drive

Genre: thriller

Synopsis: Ryan Gosling plays a character known only as “Driver” or “Kid”.  He is a mechanic who moonlights as a stunt driver and as a wheel-man for robberies – or whatever someone needs to “getaway” from.  Driver has a neighbor, Irene (Carey Mulligan) with a small child and a husband who is soon getting out of prison.  Driver and Irene clearly have some chemistry.  Drivers’ boss and agent is Shannon (Bryan Cranston).  Shannon is involved with a pair of mob bosses played by Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman.  When Irene’s husband gets out of prison, Driver helps him on a job that ends badly.  The further muddy the waters, the two mobsters get involved.  All Driver wants to do is get Irene and himself out alive.  Lots of action and lots of violence.

My two cents: I am getting to be a big fan of Ryan Gosling. From “Half Nelson” to “Fracture” to “Lars and the Real Girl” to “Blue Valentine” to “All Good Things” to “Crazy, Stupid, Love” to “Drive” he is like a chameleon.  He seems to effortlessly go from playing an emotionally-backward character to a suave lady’s man to an abusive controlling monster to a nice-guy wheel-man.  In this movie, Driver seems to be completely calm – but you get an occasional glimpse of the volcano waiting to erupt.  He is quietly eating dinner in a diner when someone who once employed him as a wheel-man offers him a job.  In a perfectly conversational voice, Driver tells the man “how about you shut your mouth before I knock your teeth down your throat and shut it for you” . . . and then calmly goes back to his dinner.  Albert Brooks was great as a smiling but utterly ruthless mob boss.  The violence in this movie is shocking at times, but if you can get past that, this is a great movie.

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