Automotive Shoot'em Up

Rating: 7/10 (25 February 2013)

"Bronson" director Nicolas Winding Refn's crime thriller "Drive" concerns a guy who works during the day as a Hollywood stunt car driver when he isn't an accomplice in robberies as a getaway driver. Comparisons between this Ryan Gosling epic and Jason Statham's "Transporter" franchise are inevitable. The chief difference is "Driver" is far more realistic, with up close and personal violence, that people don't walk away from except for a miracle. This R-rated, white-knuckled, urban melodrama shows men getting stabbed repeatedly with forks, rammed by automobiles during high speed chases, and slashed mercifully with straight razors. Things progressively grow worse for everybody in this grim account of cry doesn't pay. The hero is a taciturn fellow who knows how to drive like a bat out of hell. He can roll cars, outwit cops, and cruise backwards, but he doesn't use a gun. One day he notices another woman who lives in the same apartment building where he lives. Moreover, Irene (Carey Mulligan of "Brothers") has a young son, Benicio (Jeff Wolfe) and her husband, Standard Gabriel (Guatemalan actor Oscar Isaac of "Sucker Punch"), is just getting released from prison. Driver (Ryan Gosling of "Fracture") takes an interest in Irene before he learns that she is married. After her husband gets out of prison, he approaches Driver about a robbery in the valley of a pawnshop. Standard needs this robbery so he can pay back the dastards who have run him into debt. The trouble is that they are going to double-cross him. They involve a woman, Blanche (Christina Hendricks of "Detachment"), who knows that they will be robbed after the robbery takes place. Mind you, nobody breathes a word of double-cross to our protagonist. He is startled when he sees Standard gunned down before his very eyes.
Complicating matters is the Driver's crippled friend Shannon (Bryan Cranston of TV's "Breaking Bad") who persuades Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks of "Taxi Driver") to furnish him $300-thousand dollars so he can overhaul a car and get Driver to race it. As it turns out, Bernie's accomplice is a temperamental Jewish entrepreneur, Nino (Ron Perlman of "Hellboy"), is behind the caper that our heroes were working on when all hell broke loose. Eventually, our hero learns who he is and rams his limo so it topples off a beach. Nino tries to elude Driver, but our protagonist follows him into the surf and drowns him. Meantime, Bernie slashes Shannon's forearm and the Driver's boss bleeds to death. Bernie arranges a meeting with Driver at an Asian restaurant where he dictates the terms of their resolution. Bernie promises not to hurt the woman, but he advises the Driver to look over his shoulder at all time as a consequence of this debacle. Bernie surprises Driver and stabs him in the stomach. Driver cuts Bernie's throat and leaves his corpse in the parking lot.
Everything that can go wrong does go wrong in "Driver." Albert Brooks, who made a name for himself as a comedian in films in the 1980s and 1990s, is cast against type as a ruthless killer who slays without a qualm. Squeamish spectators may flinch at all the close-quarters violence, like a woman getting the top of her head blown off with a shotgun. To his credit, director Nicolas Winding Refn refrains from glamorizing violence. "Drive" was lensed around Los Angeles, and lenser Newton Thomas Sigel makes the city of Angels look cool. Gosling gives a strong performance as the criminal hero.