Satisfies, but a bit bland

Rating: 8/10 (30 December 2011)

"Drive" is a film about a stuntman, played by Ryan Gosling, who is forced into a rather sticky situation after aiding in a heist gone wrong. In a time where extravagant special effects and expressive acting are commonplace for such action movies, "Drive" delivers in subtlety and preciseness, however falls short in character depth.
The story begins by introducing us the a character, whom in the credits, is simply referred to as "Driver". The opening scene involves Gosling's character acting as the wheel man for a man or a group of people working to conduct a theft. This scene is very well done in that it gets the audience interested in the story without being over-the-top. All too often in movies, we see loud and gaudy chase scenes in places they do not need to be. This chase scene is perfect in that the makers of the film do not use unnecessary sound effects, but instead choose to show the entire scene from the perspective of the driver, who is portrayed as a man who always displays a calm and collected façade. It is kept very minimal, but still manages to convey the necessary amount of excitement by allowing the audience to listen to a police scanner that the driver is using, and by juxtaposing the escape scene with radio commentary from the fourth quarter of a Los Angeles Clippers game. This theme of minimalism continues throughout the rest of the film, which adds to the film but also leads to a consequence.
This consequence is that, by the end of the film, we still know rather little about the driver's personality. The film is about the driver helping a man get some money from a pawn shop theft, so that he can protect is son and wife, who the driver is in love with. We can figure out that the driver is calm, quiet, and thats about it. We don't know if he is trying to save the wife and son out of compassion or if he is doing it for selfish reasons (so he can steal her from her husband later). By the end of the movie, the driver is still a relatively blank slate.
The payoff of the minimalism is that it respects the experienced moviegoer and does not feed them images and effects that look false and unconvincing. All of the car crashes in this film look real and seem as though they were actually done and not just simulated. In that respect, this is essentially the polar opposite of any Michael Bay film.
My only other gripe about this film is that there are some aspects that are left incomplete. Near the beginning, the driver is shown to be gearing up for a newly received job and anticipation is built up regarding that job. However, the movie leaves that stone unturned and renders the scene in which the audience receives an explanation of the job pointless. The other incomplete aspect of the film is that the driver misses his chance to woo the woman he is in love with because he kisses her in an elevator while a hit man sent to kill him is in the elevator with them and then proceeds to kill the hit man right in front of her. This is essentially taking away the entire premise of the film and the reason why the driver is doing what he is doing, and flushing it down the toilet, leaving the viewer feeling a little short changed.
The bottom line is that this movie is good, but not amazing, as many are hailing it. It's worth seeing but, really only worth seeing once.