A Real Human Being and a Real Hero

Rating: 9/10 (5 January 2012)

'Drive' is a triumph of style over substance. However, in this case style is the substance. The unexpected pop music, garishly pink credits and mood-filled lighting, all conspire to create a truly distinctive flavour. Without the flourishes 'Drive' would merely be another languid crime drama. It pays homage to the 80s, and if this was made then, we'd be looking back at it as a classic of its kind. It's made to stand out. And it does.
Ryan Gosling is the kid with no name. By day a stuntman, by night a getaway driver. Five minutes: that's all he gives his clients. A minute longer and he's gone. He can afford to be so direct because he's the best at what he does. He uses his cunning to elude the cops. When they're metres away he phlegmatically parks the car and turns off the lights, or drives behind them and waits in areas where helicopters can't track him.
The Kid has a past. We don't know that, we assume it. How else could he kill so mercilessly? Maybe that's why he's laconic: it's another way to be invisible. There's an economy of acting on display here, which I enjoyed because Gosling is an actor you can quite easily watch doing 'nothing' and still be entertained.
Serving this film is a nostalgic bubble-gum pop soundtrack. I never knew this genre could be made to seem so sophisticated. It's not an obvious score but it works beautifully. It brings out the story's pathos. The slo-mos with 'A real human being' playing (now on my iPod) are cathartic.
As Irene, Carey Mulligan is perfect as the love interest. She's The Kid's neighbour. While her partner, Standard (Oscar Isaac) is in prison, she and The Kid are free to flirt. Their chemistry is lovely to behold. It's subtle. They interact mostly through smiles, which reinforces the point that communication is done mostly through body language.
Standard's release from prison provides the thrust of the story. Some heavies he owes money to coerce him to rob a pawn shop. He resists and they beat him into submission. The Kid intervenes when Standard's son is handed a symbolic bullet by one of the thugs. But it all goes wrong. Horribly wrong. He intuits it's a set-up, and in the final third, the story becomes one of mutual retribution. I want to tell you more, but doing that will spoil it for you.
This is a violent film. Scratch that. This is an exceptionally violent film. But I have no qualms because none of it glorified. It repels you and makes you wince, as real violence should. The few violent scenes are accentuated because they are dispersed throughout a deliberately slow-burning film.
The whole cast forms a wonderful ensemble. The principal players are cast against type and are convincing, particularly Ron Perlman's Jewish pizzeria owner, who longs to be Italian, and his partner, Albert Brooks, who is more reasonable but no less minatory. And of course the brilliant Ryan Gosling, as a lugubrious loner.
So much thought has gone into every sequence, like in the lift when The Kid kisses Irene to relax her before literally bashing in a man's skull, or the close-up of the scorpion on his jacket when we see his dark side emerge, or the shot of Albert Brooks looking as if he regrets a murder, suggesting that the mobster adage 'It's not personal, it's business' is nonsense.
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