Interesting but flawed

Rating: 6/10 (5 August 2012)

There were several things I really liked about this film - the performance from Gosling was well-balanced, the plot was OK, the supporting cast performed well in the non-violent scenes, the soundtrack was well-suited, and I liked the overall 'feel' of it: a film about a very troubled person that wants to do good. The Driver reminded me a little of James Cole in 12 Monkeys, as well as obviously Travis Bickle and other anti-heroes.
But there were two flaws that kept it from getting 8+ out of 10.
Firstly, the film was way too gory. The scenes of murder could have been executed without closeups of knives entering flesh, and to me this decision really jarred with the rest of the whole. I not only winced every time this happened, but felt the overall integrity of the cinematic vision crumble. This lost a whole 1.5 marks on its own.
The other flaw was that although the plot had interesting dynamics, the script was not really clear enough to show this. I had to read the Wiki article in order to work out exactly what was going on, on two occasions. The criminal's motives were not always clear, and I don't think this was deliberate.
I still enjoyed the film but soooo wish the director had cut the gore and brushed up the script in one or two scenes.
Could have been an 8.