Quite a ride

Rating: 8/10 (26 January 2013)

I've avoided "Drive" for as long as I could. Although most of the reviews I've read or what I've heard from friends were unanimously positive, they often mentioned in passing, almost as an afterthought, its rather graphic violence. For a horror movie buff, I have turned rather squeamish of realistic violence in my mature days and "Drive"'s brutal reputation had made me quite apprehensive about it. After incessant recommendations from my friend Rory (a movie buff by my own heart), claiming loud and clear that it was possibly one of the best films of 2011 and that I was bound to love it, I eventually surrendered, took a deep breath, sat down and watched it...
The Driver (Ryan Gosling), stuntman, mechanic and driver to stickups (not necessarily in that order) gets in serious trouble (read Mafia type of serious trouble) when helping the recently released from prison husband of his beautiful neighbour (Carey Mulligan) with whom he just fell in love.
Considering the genre its story belongs to, "Drive" defies all expectations. This film has a very broody quality, dreamlike almost, with its languid slow motion sequences and elegant but never demonstrative camera work, the proceedings soaked with a beautifully contemplative soundtrack. Although unusual for that specific genre, the style of this film no longer surprised me when I realised that director Nicolas Winding Refn was also at the helm of 2003 psychological thriller "Fear X", equally gorgeous and ruminative in its execution.
The oh-so-dreaded violence is indeed rather graphic and all the more startling as it irrupts, usually unannounced, in the otherwise narcotised tone of the film. But the violence is never superfluous as it is a necessary part of the plot nor it is glamorised in any way as it casts away our anti-hero from the only person he truly cares about. It did however make me wince a couple of time so be warned.
Ryan Gosling is very good as a man who is all introverted emotions and consequently deeply out of touch with the world around, his calm demeanour belying the brutality he's capable of. By contrast Carey Mulligan brings delicate beauty and restrained suffering to her character and the scenes she and Gosling share are tender and discreetly moving, which is to say without being naive nor syrupy.
All in all, "Drive" was indeed a hell of a ride. And this is a ride I wouldn't mind taking again.
Damn! Rory was right!