Blowback to the 70's and McQueen

Rating: Null/10 (6 November 2011)

If you've seen Gosling in Fracture (excellent) it is hard to believe this is the same actor. Same with Christina Hendricks of Mad Men fame. Glad they played down her huge assets and let us see her act in a different role, which is why she probably took the part.
Gosling plays a McQueen type character in the first part of the movie with subtlety using few words. This is much more difficult than most think to do. An actor has to really have confidence to pull this off. It would be like Neil Peart playing a solo on a 4 piece kit.
One scene that was so simple and pulled me in was (SPOILER) during the pawn shop robbery. As the other car pulled into the lot, Gosling made a fist with his leather glove and the glove tensing into a tight fist was all you heard...brilliant! Bryan Cranston was good, but I saw a lot of his other characters in this role. He always defaults by playing the car salesman or looser guy in debt trying to always make another score.
The music score was part 80's/part art fare...this was definitely not a Hollywood movie...reminded me of early Cohen Bro's.