A fine way to waste an afternoon

Rating: 8/10 (7 December 2013)

Introduction: For a film to make an enjoyable impression, it doesn't have to grab your attention from the beginning but it sure helps. Drive is successful in drawing its audience into the story with slightly suspenseful chase scene.
It would have been one notch better if the writers could have developed a better way to divert the traffic copter other than a fortuitous shooting at another location just when Ryan Gosling's character needed it the most. The rest of the opening sequence seems so well planned out that the one questionable getaway moment can be overlooked.
Main course: About 45 minutes into the story I stopped the video and checked the description. I try to enter into viewing movies with only a brief idea of the plot to avoid spoiling too much. At the point this was looking like a race car movie with a love twist, I decided to make sure Cole Trickle wasn't going to make an appearance.
Once spoiled, I was pleased to find that the writers at least had a few surprises to deliver. It seemed certain that Gosling and Mulligan would have an opportunity to get together and the death of her husband wasn't a shock. The setup with the second car, however, wasn't expected although from the moment it rolled into the parking lot something was clearly not right.
It was amusing to watch the girls at what I guess was a strip joint dressing room. Gosling is beating this guy, sticking a bullet in his mouth and they're sitting around taking it in while another casually walks up and hands him a cell phone. All in a days work at a bordello in LA I reckon.
Satisfying conclusion? For the most part, the conclusion to this violent downtown western is sealed up nicely but there is just enough left open for the viewer to make some decisions on their own. That will not sit well with a select group of people, I am sure, but for those who like to imagine their happy ending this is wrapped up nicely.
The people who need to be shoved off the end of a long pier get what is coming to them in the end. A few who don't have it coming to them meet their demise as well but that is necessary to make the bad guys look like really bad guys. If you haven't watched this, be prepared for some graphic violence.
So, if you found a body in a parking lot next to a bag with a million dollars in it, would you call the police?