A stylish and violent neo-noir thriller

Rating: 8/10 (6 September 2015)

Ryan Gosling plays an unnamed stunt driver who earns a bit on the side as a getaway driver; he is efficient and almost unemotional. Having recently moved into a new apartment he bumps into his neighbour Irene and ends up helping her when she has car trouble. They grow close and he learns that her husband, and father of her child, is in prison. When he gets out he says he wants to go straight but he owes a lot of money to people so must do one last job. The driver offers to help and drives him and his associate Blanche to a pawn shop the robbery doesn't go as planned; Irene's husband ends up dead while the driver and Blanche flee with a million dollars of the mob's money. Those who organised the robbery want the money and they want everybody involved dead so the mob will never be able to trace the crime to them. The driver will have to get bloody if he is to save himself, Irene and her son.
When I started watching this I didn't really know what to expect; I just knew it was about a getaway driver and had received good reviews. It crossed my mind that it might be a bit like 'The Transporter' series of films It is not. Things start well as we see the Driver avoid the police as he drives a couple of crooks away from their job before finding out about his day job. Once he befriends Irene a very chaste relationship develops. It isn't until her husband gets out of prison and has a run in with the people he owes money to do we get a hint of the violence to come. It isn't that there is a lot of violence; it is the intensity and suddenness of it that really shocks; a woman gets her head blown off with a shotgun, a man gets his head stamped to a bloody mess and another gets a fork in his eye! This isn't the exciting, highly choreographed violence of most action movies; it is nasty and brutal and deliberately so.
Ryan Gosling gives a fine performance as the Driver; a character who at times seems like a hero and at others a psychopath. He is able supported by Carey Mulligan, who plays Irene; Christina Hendricks, who plays Blanche; Brian Cranston and Ron Perlman amongst others. Director Nicolas Winding Refn did a great job as he lulls us into a false sense of security with a gentle start then unleashes shocking violence and ever-increasing tension right till the end I was unsure whether or not the Driver would survive. Overall I found this will well worth watching even if the violence was quite shocking.