You could skip the first hour.

Rating: Null/10 (6 October 2011)

When I heard about Drive, and saw the raving reviews about it, I went in expecting something amazing...a really solid, character-driven action/thriller, something like Leon. What I got was a tedious disappointment.
When you watch the opening scene, things look good. It's not an explosive action scene by any means, but it's tense and edgy, and already I was gripping the edge of my seat. My expectations were still high. And after that...the entire movie slows down to the most glacial of drips.
Now I understand that a good movie needs to take its time. Character relationships need to build, plot points need to develop and so on. However, it just feels like the director's idea of taking time was to just squeeze a five-to-ten-second pause in front of every one of Ryan Gosling's lines. Curiously enough, Carey Mulligan was directed to deliver her lines in the exact same way, so all of the scenes in which they are talking together are just flat-out painful to get through. I know silence has its merits in conveying emotions and building tension, but there's just nothing to convey in these VERY long gaps! Both actors just have hollow, blank looks on their faces, and about eighty percent of the time they're just strangers making small talk, so there's no drama to soak up either. It's some of the most tedious dialogue I have ever sat through.
Oscar Isaac is the third actor to use this technique, but he's the only one that gives it a purpose. Especially when he's addressing Gosling in the hallway, there's just an unpredictable, dangerous air about him, like you just expect him to break out shouting. He was a damn scary character in his own subtle way, and I praise his performance.
The one advantage of the ever-so-quiet first hour of this film is that when action DOES occur, it hits you like a punch in the gut. It doesn't feel like so much of an everyday occurrence, which makes it all the more pulse-pounding. Also, seeing the stoic Driver unleashing his darker side is pretty terrifying, especially since he appears so quiet and distant for the rest of the film. Is it worth all those long, wooden pauses? No. His quietness could have still been conveyed without wasting so much screen time.
The final scenes of the film are definitely worth watching, and there is some superb direction (the scene on the beach was one of the best directed scenes I've ever seen) and some downright chilling moments. I won't spoil anything, but the ending really knows how to play with your expectations, and it was beautifully done.
Visually, it's also pretty stunning. The deep, crisp shadows really makes the film feel like a graphic novel at times, and almost any shot in this film could be made into a painting. I have to give it credit for that, it looked beautiful.
I won't go into the plot, so as not to spoil anything, but I will say it's interesting, just not really explained with much depth. You almost feel like the story is just a side-plot to something, it never really feels like it's at the foreground until the third act. It also has one of the most hollow screen romances I have ever endured, no matter how much the music and direction tries to convince you otherwise.
So, in conclusion...what was THERE was pretty interesting, but there just wasn't much of it. The movie wastes an ungodly amount of time with long pauses that convey nothing, and the entire movie could probably be condensed into a little less than an hour and still not appear rushed. I'm not saying it should have been a noisy, explosive action blockbuster, but I was hoping for more than blank-faced silences at least.
Hence, I'm sorry to give it a five out of ten. Because half of the film deserves top marks, but the other half is just empty. I really wanted to enjoy this film as well.