Entertaining but flawed

Rating: 5/10 (5 October 2011)

First of all, Ryan Gosling is no Steve Mcqueen, although he is trying to be. There are great actors who can reveal their characters without a large amount of dialogue, but Gosling is not one of these actors. I didn't buy him as the scorpion jacket wearing loner Travis Bickle type. We learned nothing about what made him become this person.
The music was completely wrong. A brooding score would have been more appropriate to underscore Gosling's character. This would have helped tell us who he really was. Instead, Cliff Martinez delivered a "Traffic" knockoff that was focused on the implausible romance between Mulligan and him. As for the 80's songs in the film, I found them offensive. I believe these filmmakers were using 80's sounding songs and 80's titles to be quirky. They probably thought it was a great idea because it's unexpected and retro, but it was inappropriate and embarrassing. Why did they do that? Albert Brooks was excellent as were many of the supporting actors. This could have been a great film, but it is not.