Much like fashion is cyclical apparently so are movie clichés

Rating: 9/10 (20 September 2011)

Ryan Gosling and his girl friend are in their apartment elevator with a mysterious man in a suit. Ryan notices a gun in the man's jacket. He grabs his girl and starts to make out with her in the elevator. Queue the high contrast lighting and long "intense" multi-angle shots followed by Gosling throwingthe mystery mans head into the elevator and stomping his face into the ground till it squishes. His girlfriend mortified exits the elevator and stares in disbelief. Ryan stands there coated in blood with the typical blank expression on his face and the audience laughed.
The whole thing just so ridiculous. The police, such an intricate part of the opening scene are nowhere to be found the whole rest of the movie as Gosling leaves behind dead bodies in hotel rooms, on the beach, in diner parking lots and even in his own apartment complex elevator.
This movie takes itself way too seriously. From the out of place eighties-esque synth pop soundtrack to the equally out of place large pink title cards this movie is a mash up of 80's clichés and pretentious cinematography. I went into this with high expectations based on all the user and critic reviews. Although I was impressed by the acting of all the supporting cast and the intensity of a few scenes here and there overall I left the film thinking what a waste of time.
Ryan Goslings character was so unbelievable. It's like they were trying to make him a quiet Steven Mcqueen tough guy but it just didn't work. Don't get me wrong he has tons of screen presence but his character was so uneven. He could barely communicate or express any emotion with any character in the film including his girlfriend but he somehow was great with the girlfriends son. He turned into father knows best. Please! Guys like this have mental and emotional problems and they would feel just as uncomfortable around a child as they would around adults. But the filmmakers try and manipulate us by showing the equivalent of scenes of him doing magic tricks like pulling coins out from behind the boys ear.
At least 30 minutes of the film were long scenes of Gosling driving down the road staring off into space. I couldn't help but reminded Taxi Driver. But that movie had voice over's and a far more interesting lead character. Gosling is just pure 80's superhero tough guy with no characterization aside from his undying loyalty to the girl down the hall and her son he's known we presume for at most a few weeks.
They tried using violence purely for shock factor.
The best thing about the film was the opening scene where Gosling uses his wit and exceptional driving skills to avoid the police from catching him as a getaway driver for a robbery. But that scene was bittersweet because it seemed to make a promise that there would be more scenes like that to come but the movie is just all downhill from there. All the support cast were great though, although for the most part given little to do or say. In particular Albert Brooks and the forever awesome Bryan Cranston. Oh and the girlfriend was pretty hawt too.
This movie was entertaining to watch when I didn't know where it was going but once I saw where it ended up it all just felt contrived and empty. The opening scene promises a total different movie than is ultimately delivered. What was so interesting about it is it put you in moment of what it would really feel like to try and escape police pursuit in the real world. But after the opening the rest of movie turns into fantasy that's hard to derive any real tension from.