Banana Scoop

I’ve never known Ryan Gosling to be an action star.  I’ve affiliated him with movies like Crazy, Stupid, Love, The Notebook, Lars and the Real Girl, and Blue Valentine – a very talented actor who should stick with dramas.  So when I saw him in this movie with a premise very similar to Transporter, I was confused if whether or not he was simply getting a paycheck or if he found something special in the script he read.  After sitting through it, I found out which one of those were true.  And it turns out Ryan Gosling doesn’t need and likely never will require a ‘paycheck’ because Drive turns out to be one the best films of the year, and you’ll be seeing Gosling again and again after his mesmerizing performance.  SPOILERS.

Ryan Gosling plays someone only referred to as the driver, kid, generic nameless cliché.  All within the first 20 minutes, the audience knows almost everything there is to know about the driver.  He’s a stuntman by day and a wheelman by night.  He’s characterized by his sense of silence and his strong set of rules.  His usually monotonous life is changed for the good when he meets Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her daughter.  It’s when her husband comes home from prison carrying problems of his own that our hero entangles himself with the local crime syndicate.

When you read that summary, the film sounds incredibly cliché, but it’s Gosling’s amazing performance and director Nicolas Winding Refn’s hyper stylization that separates itself by breaking new ground in cinematic style.  Unconventional, suspenseful, and extremely withdrawing, Drive is also memorable because of its enigmatic protagonist and the film’s bursts of violence.  Gosling’s driver is mesmerizing and likable in the same ways Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle is.  Gosling is borderline socially dysfunctional and you can tell just by the way he moves, talks, and acts that he isn’t normal.  But there is a factor of likability just as in Travis Bickle, especially when he risks his life to save a near stranger.

Who, me? Oh I'm just a mysterious driver who's REALLY good at killing people

I also mentioned the film’s violence.  The amount of violence is used as an effective tool for shock value.  The first moment of shock was when Gosling kills the men in the motel room: he stabs a man in the neck and blasts the other one with a shotgun.  He stands among the wreckage, his face deadpanned and stained with blood, you can only imagine what’s going on in his head right now: “how is he so calm?”, “has he killed before?”, “who is this guy?”  Even more memorable is Gosling’s head stomp scene in the elevator.  A brutal and mesmerizing scene, that’s when you definitely know Gosling’s character is not normal because the relatable character in the scene, Irene, backs away in horror as he stands above a mutilated carcass as if nothing happened.

I've seen some things you ain't even imagined yet.

I’ve used the word stylized a lot in this movie.  By stylized I’m referring to the unconventional soundtracks, cutaways, and general editing of the film.  I’m not a master of knowing the differences between types of shots, but I like to think that I know when a film is stylized or not.  It’s a real out of world experience from the beginning to the end.  A particular scene that encompasses the awesomeness of the movie as a whole is the final scene, where Gosling is sitting in his car after being stabbed.  For a good solid minute or two, Gosling sits in his car still, while the audience does not know whether or not he is dead or alive.  This is a testament to Gosling’s acting with his ability to not blink or show any movement for the long single-shot and director Refn’s directing abilities to give us the most suspenseful moment in the movie.

All in all, Drive is suspenseful and memorable on all fronts and opens doors for Gosling to be an action star.  Long ago was his role as a mannequin loving freak and now Gosling will be a household name.  I expect Oscar buzz for Gosling and Refn.  I like to think of this movie as a more contemporary Taxi Driver with its bursts of violence and socially defunct protagonists, so if you want to see Travis Bickle again, go see this movie.

4.5/5 Stars