i don't understand.

Rating: 7/10 (18 September 2011)

I did not like this movie. It had it's moments, I will give it that, like some of the car chase scenes were very well done and they were different and daring. And I loved the first five minutes, I was really hoping it would keep going down that path. The music was captivating, I thought Gosling did a great job at portraying his characters emptiness, and some of the cinematography was beautiful. And I even liked the opening credits. But as the story got rolling I found it very difficult to stay engaged. I wasn't learning anything new that I didn't learn in the first five minutes and I didn't really give a crap what happened to any of the characters. I guess maybe because I didn't find the two main characters relationship all that believable or moving. Great films have some sort of message in them, or a great narrative. There's something about the characters that you can relate to. In this film, Gosling's character is not even given any background. We don't know where he came from, what his past is. It's very difficult to relate to him or get why he's doing what he's doing or why he's such an offbeat. They made it very clear that his life was empty but that's about as far as it went. I'm not saying Gosling did a bad job, I think the director did.
Not too mention the editing was just ridiculously slow. It's like here's a shot of his head he's staring... staring.... staring.... now camera pans to girl she's staring... staring... staring... Ryan laughs awkwardly.... they stare some more... cut scene. Cool. Also one thing I noticed is Mulligan's character doesn't seem to give much of a crap about her husband when he comes home from jail. Yet when he dies all the sudden she can barely speak and she's so grief stricken. This reaction didn't fit with the way she reacted before. I thought it was kind of a laugh there was nothing about the story that moved me or even excited me I just found it so boring.
i'd also like to add the director came up with some main ideas for this movie while he was stoned on some sort of medication after the dentist... I could tell...