Drive

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Plot: "The Driver" (Ryan Gosling) does Hollywood driving stunts, fixes cars, and drives the occasional get-away car. He meets his cute neighbor, Irene (Carey Milligan), but soon her husband, Standard (Oscar Isaac), comes back from prison. "The Driver" tries to helps them out by helping Standard get out of debt by robbing a store, but that does not go well, and soon we are meeting thugs and mob bosses. The violence is brutal and hard to watch, but brief.

Review: Drive is a classy movie with understated dialog and underacting -- all the dialog and emotions are dialed way back. Only the bad guys have emotions everyone else is stony-faced. The under-emoting helps the viewer enter into the experience better, but it does not let the actor show you how to feel, instead, the audience paints the emotions on the blank screens of Gosling and Milligan's faces. 


It could not be more different from Fast Five.  It is supposed to be an updated Film Noir, although  the images are not dark and smoky.


"The Driver," the character, starts out being a regular guy, but as the movie progresses he gets becomes a more stereotyped tough guy and more and more violent. Perhaps this is because of the circumstances he is in, but perhaps we just are getting to know him better. The Driver is like an experimental film since its style is so dominant. The soundtrack is good too.


I was glad to watch it because it is different. On the other hand, different does not make it good. 

Cast:  Ryan Gossling, Carey Mulligan

Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn, based on the book by James Sallis.

Rating:   2.5 stars:  I am tempted to give it 3 stars because it was pretty edgy. On the other hand, it was not that fun to watch, and not as engaging as Contagion that also got 2.5 stars. To me the underacting was too great, and there was no social or moral message in the Drive.

More: The character "The Driver" does not have a name; he is always "Driver," or "Kid."

Even More: I like how the only* beverage in the film is water; this fits with the visual minimism. (*I have been corrected, Driver drinks coffee in the diner.) 

Yet More: Irene's husbands name is "Standard." "The Driver" is supposed to be the "Deluxe;" check the titles in the soundtrack album. 
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