Slick and stylish thriller

Rating: 8/10 (4 August 2013)

Ten seconds in it grabs you: less than a minute more you know what you need to about the protagonist. The rest of the opener is a get-away scene so slick you don't notice the exposition. After that the pace of the film slows down some.
Ryan Gosling's performance is understated giving the Driver an air of someone who is sufficiently self-possessed that he doesn't feel the need to prove anything. But the Driver is perhaps not wholly self-possessed. Whether his appetite for extreme violence is down to simply being ruthless or anger issues isn't clear. The central character is an enigma. He certainly doesn't have an appetite for talking much. There are brief, but lingering silences where you expect him to say something, which eventually he does but only speaks a few words.
Cary Mulligan does a decent job of playing the damsel-in-distress. Ron Perlman and Albert Brooks are off the shelf mobsters but their performances are solid.
This is an action flick whose spectacular stunts at times give an artificial feel to the film. The hand brake turn in the chase sequence is eye-popping but how does it help shake off the pursuers?
The violence is brutal without warning, always popping up out of nowhere to make you wince. In a country where guns are widely available there are a lot of sharp objects used instead. The violence of the antagonists make you wince more than that of the Driver perhaps to make the bad guys badder and thus making the protagonist more sympathetic. The music adds to the ambiance and moods of the film, especially the tension and menace at the beginning.
Overall, a good balance of drama and action with spectacular, if jarring, stunts. The drama is more convincing than the stunts. The violence will put off some people.