The Noir loner is alive and well

Rating: Null/10 (11 November 2011)

One reference appears in all reviews I've seen of "Drive" – Alain Delon's "Le Samourai". That says about all. Or maybe not – there is one other that is in a way perhaps even more relevant: Robert Di Nero's "Taxi driver". It's all about a psychotic driver going all out to protect a fragile, vulnerable member of the opposite sex.
Known interchangeably as "the kid" and "the driver", existentialist, cool, taciturn, ultra-violent (when he chooses to be) titular getaway wheelman (Ryan Goosling) by night and stunt driver by day strikes up a friendship with young (25-ish) single mother Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her 7-year-old son. The romance is minimalist and art-house, and also innocent, with him playing surrogate father more than anything else.
The idyllist existence of the trio is soon interrupted by the discharge from prison the real head of the family, repenting Standard (Oscar Isaac), which leads to a smooth transition of The Driver's role from surrogate father and husband (never in a sexual sense) to good family friend. So far so good (as Steve McQueen said in "The Magnificent Seven") At this mid-point of the movie, things take a drastic turn. Bad company Standard made in prison starts to haunt him, coming after him for money he never owed, culminating in forcing him to rob a pawn shop. For Irene's sake, The Driver offers his service in exchange for the promise that the family be forever left alone after the successful completion of the job.
The job was never completed; Standard got killed. This is where a number of shady characters introduced in the beginning of the movie come into full action, with hidden agendas and betrayals. It is not really necessarily to follow the plot because here is where your attention is compulsively drawn to the gore and violence that earned this movie its "Restricted" rating in town. The focus however is as simple as can be – to protect the mother and child. One very ironic scene is where the audience is shown the only shot of intimacy between the protagonists – a passionate kiss – which turns out to be only a disarming decoy, as The Driver abruptly turns around and delivers a most vicious attack on a goon who is about to jump them.
Right from his superb performance in "The believer" (2001), Goosling has demonstrated again and again, in every movie he makes, that he is the actor who has something extra to offer every time. In "Drive", his intriguingly nuanced performance shines again. Mulligan is all innocent goodness in this movie, but not without traces of almost puritanical strength that brings to mind Jodi Foster. Isaac (Joseph in "The Nativity Story" 2006) handles his small but important support role with a solid performance necessary to make the movie work.
Photography is brilliant, particularly in bringing to life L.A. after dark. Audio is a demonstration of virtuous deftness, varying with exciting rhythm, sweet languid melancholy and complete silence.
"Drive" was nominated for Palme d'Or this year, and although it didn't win, it was successful in earning Best Director for Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn.