Initially threatens to drown in style, but stick with it and there's a fine pay off

Rating: 9/10 (22 May 2012)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
A man known only as Driver (Ryan Gosling) has a successful career as a Hollywood stunt man and can basically do anything he puts his mind to when it comes to fast cars. But Shannon (Bryan Cranston), an old friend of his, has come in to some money worries and approaches crime boss Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) about using Driver as the getaway in a heist on a pawn shop. With his own money worries after falling for the wife of Standard (Oscar Isaac) who's just come out of prison, he agrees-only to find himself caught in a maze of deception and deceit.
Drive found itself the subject of some favourable reviews from a lot of critics, who I expected it to get the brush off from. Before I even started watching it, I knew there'd be a little more to it than what it looked. And indeed, Nicolas Winding Refn has done something quite inspired by taking what is quite a conventional heist story and coating it over in an art-house style flavour, with a clever use of style and an accompanying background soundtrack. The trouble is to begin with, it sort of loses you with this and threatens to become a case of style over substance, and it's true that a bit of patience is required with it, but it all pays off in the end with quite an impressive, brutal thriller that delivers.
Cast wise, in the lead, Gosling has a natural, quietly mesmerising presence, even if he can't shake the feeling of being a bit too much of a pretty boy for such a brutal, blood thirsty film, while a supporting cast including Brooks, Carey Mulligan and Ron Perlman manage to be a little more than surplus to requirements. Refn manages not to get too lost in his own pretensions and pulls everything off quite wonderfully.
It's a film that could well alienate as many as it draws in, but it deserves to be appreciated on it's own level and seen for the stylistic, violent gem it is. ****