Drive Reviews

Our Review

Gosling's thriller stalls in second gear

William Kostakis, MovieFix

Drive is a well-put-together piece of film. It's an homage to 80s cinema (hot-pink cursive credits font and all), with strong acting and high-art sensibilities, but at the same time, it's a crime thriller that offers few genuine thrills.

The opening is stellar. It neatly introduces the premise — Ryan Gosling drives getaway vehicles for armed heists — and as Gosling's unnamed driver navigates the city streets to escape police pursuit, director Nicolas Winding Refn delivers on the promise of the film's premise, deftly balancing high-speed action with moments of stillness and unbearable tension.

It's magic that Refn, who won Best Director for Drive at Cannes, is not quite able to sustain.

The film trades the opening's clever intensity for a muted, painfully slow-burning narrative that mixes an unconvincing romance with a predictable crime drama.

On the subject of the romance, the audience is given no compelling reason for Carey Mulligan's Irene and Gosling's driver to hook up other than them living on the same floor and spending time with each other out of convenience. Refn appears to have mistaken romantic chemistry for pregnant pauses and stilted dialogue about nothing.

As for the crime drama, it all unfolds as it should, a heist goes wrong, mob bosses need people "taken care of", people are "taken care of"... it's a matter of watching Refn tick the homage boxes one after the other, as if winking to the audience was enough to satisfy them completely.

The only truly memorable moments are the sporadic showings of over-the-top violence that almost play for comedy.

What Drive is trying to do is very clear, but clear intent doesn't forgive a film that's mostly flat.

Your Reviews

eric777

Over-the-top splatter. The rule of thumb in today's cinema-- the more you hear the sound of a car at high throttle, the weaker the story line

bozdog

Basically a horror moved dressed up as an art form. The pace is excruciating and the violence preposterous. Anyone endorsing this sort of film must be either devoid of real feelings and desperate for a cheap thrills without any foundation. Gosling and Mulligan are pretty good despite the crap surrounding their movie...

boofdah

Not really my cup of tea, but it was a decently-made film, to a point. I dug the subtlety of the two main characters' relationship, but a lot of the "mystery" surrounding Gosling's character felt a bit contrived. Also didn't like that the DVD omitted only him for any cast interviews, presumably to maintain the enigma surrounding the Driver. Oh, please. Stop acting like we in the audience are a bunch of morons. A bit of pretentious schlock, cheesy '80s music and all. The whole nostalgia factor just became tiresome IMO.

Rick777

Great stylized 80s feel, gosling does an amazing job, great character but a bit unbelievable with all of his jobs and skills. The film fell flat in several places, including the lack of any meaningful fleshing out of characters besides gosling, and even then his fleshing out was weak, although the audience does identify with him. Pacing was quite excellent as was the direction, that is until the end when some very stupid and unrealistic decisions by goslings character leaves you scratching your head, but I don't want to give up the ending. This was a film that valued stylization over substance, if it wasn't for gosling excellent performance there would be no substance to it.

snowwalrus

Started off brilliant, and sank like a stone. There were just too many unanswered questions. For one thing, how many jobs does a guy need? He's a getaway driver, a stunt driver, a race car driver, and a mechanic. And he lives in an apartment a waitress can afford. What's he doing with his money? And the romance goes down as the most unbelievable of the year. Most of the women I know like to know, say, a fact or two about guys they date. But not this waitress. Just a soulful stare, hey that's good enough, let's start planning a life together. Oh wait, you stomped someone to death in front of me? No problem, I'll get over it. Not a good film. Lots of unnecessary gore, too.

glasiad

The film was like a few pretty flowers in a massive heap of poo. Remove all the long tedious staring scenes and you've got a few scenes of ugly violence to keep you watching. All around rubbish of a film.

Troysten

Actually liked the 80's feel Refn got out of it and the direction was slick but it quickly became an exercise in style over content. Ryan Gosling's character was played as a sociopathic anti-hero who didn't say a lot which meant his 'connections' to the other characters felt contrived. The herd review love in by most critics makes it proportionately the most overrated film of the year.

What a snoozer... BORING. Goodness. Tell a story. There was no point to this. Yuck.

Sean

The movie was simply brilliant. Like max said its all about contrasts. The main character goes through the whole spectrum of human emotions and how honestly he displays them is indeed refreshing. All the supporting casts feed off him. The soundtrack really controlled the intensity of the movie as well. Very much in the same vain as American Beauty for me.

Nelly

A brilliant movie !!

Max Johnson

This movie has so many blatant contrasting themes and scenes I fail to see how people have missed what it was "aiming for". Slow and fast, silent and talkative. Moments of blissful harmony and extreme violence. Beauty and horror. The first 30 minutes of the movie did worlds to humanise the characters. Towards the end we get to witness what humans do when pushed beyond their breaking point. The acting was superb on all accounts and special effects were kept to a minimum which is a more than welcome change of pace for modern cinema. I feel sorry for those of you who felt that this movie owed them something more, or were mistakenly expecting a cookie-cutter Fast and Furious clone. The joke's on you. People more like myself will continue to enjoy truly excellent movies and enrich ourselves with culture as a result. My only complaint? Some of the music was a little cheesy.

Anne

Very, very slow to start with. I was on the point of leaving but the pace picked up a little. However you had to really pay attention to discover the intricacies and the complexities of Ryan Goslings character. Good movie, but not worth a second look.

OGGOR

Weird silent had my heart beating in suspense, this film is not a Hollywood blockbuster. Like one of the other reviews I don't know who Ryan gosling is but I do now, took the role on and did it brilliantly. Well worth watching if your mind is open and your left of centre.

Excellent movie! Not for people who like the usual and the ordinary. Amazing acting form Gosling, Brooks and Mulligan, great supporting cast. More like a character based movie than about fast cars and hot chicks.

Ryan Gosling doesn't take his **** off, once. It was weird, violent, then weirder, then "i-didnt-need-to-see-that" discusting. The people who made this movie couldn't make up there minds what story line they wanted this movie to be focused on, so they used every boring idea they had. They even almost forgot to tell the actors to speak in some parts. Big let down.

Interesting movie, great opening scene, then it gets boring for a long time. The Ryan Gosling kills or hurts someone, then long boring bits again. Really not worth the time or money

Well, it might have been a good (or, at least, reasonable) film if it wasn't completely destroyed by the Director. What brand was the Director smoking, anyway? Why would he even think of trying to make an artistic film featuring a scene in which a bloke gets a table fork stuck in his eye .. among other various blood-spurting events. And, after you have seen this film, did you constantly feel you needed to prod the actors because the dialog was so s-l-o-w?

saw it at the dollar movies thank goodness i did'nt pay full price .....overrated .....but ok ....

James

Do not listen to this review...or to the weak user reviews of the film. This film is not for everyone, that much I will admit. Suede got it right by stating this is definitely a combination of Michael Mann and David Lynch (really felt the Lynch influence on this one). If you like the sound of that combination, this movie is for you! If you don't know how David Lynch is...you probably won't care too much for this film.

Anonymous

OMG he didnt say a word, and the stupid 80's theme was boring!!! I feel off to sleep!!! It was a complete waste of TIME!!!

Anonymous

Not much heart behind the movie all links up in the end but otherwise an all rojnd dissapointment

Anonymous

This movie, was the most pathetic and revolting movie, my husband and I have ever seen. A complete waste of money and time. Very dissapointing. I do not recommend anyone to see it.

Anonymous

This movie was just terrible, and weird! I almost fell asleep as it dragged on and on...Save your money!!!

Anonymous

I am not into cars. I am not into violence. I dont know who Ryan Gosling is ... but this movie is simply brilliant. The opening car scene is brilliant. intelligent. suspenseful. and it is worth going to see the movie just for this alone. Everything about Ryan Gosling's performance was measured - in words, in love, in violence - yes even in violence. The story had so many layers to it also and this is a movie I continue to think about long after it is over. Loved it!

Josh Griffin

Movie was awful, kept getting lost in the movie and eventually fell asleep. The trailer shows the best bits and the rest is pure crap. Wait for dvd!!

Suede

"Drive" is an engaging film that feels like a mash up of David Lynch and Michael Mann...Like Lynch for the space in the scene,the dialogue (or more importantly the lack of dialogue in places) the innocent almost cornball love story of the first act amidst the terror and danger of the rest of the film. Like Mann for the L.A setting /cinematography and the score was reminiscent of night scenes in "Heat". I believe the original reviewer has missed the point on the action, the action isn't the film, the action is a means to move along the love story, because at its heart that's what this film is, A dark love story. Ryan Gosling is stunning in this role as the antihero driver, an enigmatic observer of life,seemingly able to accomplish anything for the justice he believes his love deserves, whether he is also deserving is up for interpretation as the darkness in him makes you think perhaps this character has seen and done some things that have changed him deeply. I would give this film 5 stars but Christina Hendricks was terrible. See this film if you enjoyed Blue Velvet,Heat,True Romance,Dark City or Leon the Professional.

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