an exhilarating and stylish action movie from start to finish.

Rating: 9/10 (26 September 2012)

Driver is a man who usually being hired for any kind of job that related to driving. his identities is mysterious since he is only been called driver or kid by his boss through the entire movie. In the opening scene, a discovery shot was made to show the viewer an action that focus on the driver slowly make some kind of preparation on the bed. the scene is being shot with a style of film noir, showing a mysterious man wearing a jacket. after the scene, an opening credit was played with a retro music as its soundtrack.it is clear that "Drive" is not the typical modern Hollywood action movie, judging from the beginning of the movie and the opening credit. some viewer will find this weird because its like watching an old episode of the 60's or early 70's TV series. I find this to be unique because there were few director that open up his action movie with film noir style and retro music nowadays. In the time where action movie is dominated by fast car or a group of flamboyant entourage, "Drive" come out with something different. while many filmmaker use many action clique or trying to imitate the other successful action film. director Nicholas Winding Refn didn't follow this pattern of typical action movie, instead of stealing or imitating, he try to experiment the action genre with his own movie that simply entitled "Drive".by using retro music as the film musical background and the camera technique of film noir he has made an exciting retro style and post noir action movie. as the result, he was awarded a prize for best director on the canes festival. it is an evidence that the critique appreciate his vision, but other critique such as veteran top film critique Leonard Maltin perceive his vision differently. he said that director Nicholas Winding Refn has chosen style over substance. some of his saying were partially true,at some degree the substance of the movie is kind of a letdown since the plot of the story was a little too linear and also the character driver seems pretty much empty in term of personality during the first part of the movie. despite his good criticism, I slightly disagree with him because I thought that sometimes a good action movie didn't need any high concept or an emotional aspect on its substance or essence. Sometime it is just need a cohesive unique style of filmmaking that was creative and original just like director Nicholas Winding Refn managed to poured his creative vision in this movie.
Driver was well acted by Ryan Gosling,he is a men who just wanted to get the job done,but all of that change when he meet Irene played by Carrey Mulligan and her son Benicio. Irene was currently living on her own until his husband Standard Gabriel came back from jail. after falling in love with Irene, Driver has change the way he see his life because for the first time he felt the need to protect and care for Irene and her son. Driver,a lone wolf was finally found some meaning in her life. This kind of story has some similarity with some of the classic Clint Easwood film where in the end the lonely man find the love of his life or people that has some meaning for him. Everything seem turn out great when Irene and her son has shown affection toward driver and he also satisfied with his current life. Suddenly everything change when Irene husband standard Gabriel got back from the prison to stay with his wife Irene. not knowing the unexpected, it turns out that he had trouble with some criminal while he serve his prison time. as the result he has endangered not only his life but also Irene and his son Benicio life after the criminal threatened their life. the desperate Gabriel come to driver to ask for his help in cleaning up the trouble that he had made in his past by getting a job from a thug named Cook who somehow has a connection with Gabriel. Driver agree to help him,later in the movie he and Gabriel become trapped in a heist that resulted in the death of Gabriel. Knowing that he was being trapped, he traced the criminal job that was given by Cook and it turned out that the job was set up by a guy named Nino played by Ron Pearlman who happened to be his beloved boss Shannon current client and business partner along with Shannon long time friend Bernie played by Albert Brooks. The first part of the movie started rather slow until its brilliant climax where driver killed both men that was trying to assassinate him in the motel. Cinematographer Newton Thomas Segel managed to shoot the action scene perfectly with a moving discovery shoot and he finished up the scene with zooming the driver while he shot the shotgun toward the last thug on the front door. It was a great action scene in which the film changed its slow pace into fast pace action movie through the rest of the movie.
all the acting was solid enough to entertain viewer , but the breakout role lies in Ryan Gosling where he played the stunt driver turn into some sort of anti-hero. While Carey Mulligan also bring solid performance despite her short time in the movie.as usual Ron Pearlman get the job done as a supporting actor even though his character Nino, a confident old mob that use a lot of swearing through its screen time. last but not least, comedian Albert Brooks also becoming a well-worth addition for the entire cast playing Shannon long time friend Bernie whose character was the only one that has a long conversation with many character in the movie. "Driver" was an exhilarating action movie that is worth a watch and an almost pitch perfect action when it comes to the style of the movie.