adrenaline and strain but also a lot of creativity

Rating: Null/10 (13 October 2011)

Drive's beginning is a very grabbing and exciting heist sequence that is somehow indicative of what will follow; director Nicolas Winding Refn, for most of the film, gets to straddle the line between art-house and usual American movies - with a deliberately slow pace and contemplative atmosphere, which requests audience's attention/patience for a while. Ryan Gosling manages to deliver an expectedly striking and thorough performance, as his character, an extremely strong and silent guy, becomes a sympathetic and wholehearted figure as every viewer expected and hoped from the film's opening. The inclusion of many electrifying and terribly violent moments - such as a robbery going horribly wrong and the killing in the elevator - confirm Drive's place as a great thriller, with also an irresistibly stylish atmosphere that helps create context and substance. From its opening the story is cool and controlled at the same time but you feel the tension more and more over the course of the film.