It was talked up by a friend but I still enjoyed it a lot

Rating: 8/10 (28 December 2011)

When a friend told me about this film she kind of raved about it without going into too much detail about the plot, and from what she told me I thought it sounded really cool. She was saying how it was about a stunt driver who moonlights as a driver for heists, but its not a car movie and its "really really good". The last piece of information about it not being a car movie made me happy. So I have now watched it and I did still really like it but it definitely was not what I had expected from my friends fairly vague review of it.
The basic plot line is about a stunt driver, with no real history, who gets caught up in a heist gone wrong involving a girl he is into and then he and the people around him are in trouble. Thats the gist of it.
Everything I liked about it:
1. The acting performances. Fantastic. Ryan Gosling is a man of little words in this film and it makes the mystery of who he is, how he became so great at driving and his history all the more effective. There are times when we see him nearly crying which shows that he cares about the ones around him but how he can suddenly turn so violently is a shocking aspect to his character and he pulled it off amazingly. The relationship and on-screen chemistry between Gosling and Carey Mulligan is quite stunning. It is focused on staring, mood and emotion rather than dialogue. Bryan Cranston is great as always, and the other actors are all really suited to the characters.
2. The music and dramatic tension. It often felt like there was music that was ill fitting but it still worked. Then there was the use of noise to build up tension. Many of the tracks sounded like they were from the 80s and I questioned whether the film was set then until one of the characters said "I used to do ________ back in the 80s" (I can't exactly remember what the line was but it answered my question). So it is set in present time.
3. I guess what else I liked about this film is that it seemed to have a country Western style, shoot n draw, but with cars. Gosling is a cowboy as are the other gangsters. I think another really interesting and compelling factor that I mentioned previously is that Gosling's character is given no back story, he is who he is in this moment and no one can really know where he has come from and how he got there.
I am now going to try to be critical, so the things I didn't like:
1. maybe a little too long, or felt too long because a lot of the scenes are filmed in slow motion to intensify tension, so it felt like it dragged a bit.
2. I'm not exactly partial to as much violence as this film had, but I understand why it was included in such a gory way and suited the film. I'm just not a fan of such a lot violence. This is just a personal opinion.
I have read a few bad reviews about the film but I'm still glad to see it has an IMDb rating of 8.1 because it definitely deserves it. I guess if you're expecting something like Fast and the Furious or some crappy Vin Diesel garbage you would probably be disappointed but watch the film with old school western's in mind and you may be able to see a modern interpretation of that genre.
It is overall a really well executed film, has a storyline that has definitely been done before but has been done in a new and original way and stellar acting performances without being another piece of Hollywood action trash.