Drive

Rating: 10/10 (18 September 2011)

Apparently, Ryan Gosling is much more than a pretty face. Being a girl who's mooned over him since I hit puberty, it's hard to accept he's so much more. I knew this of course, the minute I saw Half Nelson or even Lars and the Real Girl, but this is the first role that actually shocked my system. He has very little dialog in Drive and that doesn't drag the film in any way as far as I'm concerned. Ryan's fantastic ability to easily SHOW the audience that this is how he he feels, this is how he's going to handle it, was great and unnerving at times.
It was not just an action film either. There weren't obnoxious clichés or stupid, unbelievable fight scenes because the driver somehow knew karate. It's realistic and a had an actual plot. It felt like this gritty place and this rough character were part of a world I could have lived in at some point. I didn't feel like I was watching some green screen on some sound stage.
I haven't left the theater feeling this satisfied with what I sat through in a long time. Will it be overrated, over analyzed and over discussed as time goes on? Oh I'm sure it will. Does it deserve bragging rights and the cult following I can only hope it garners? Hell yes. From what I saw, Ryan Gosling deserves the praise. He even made me believe that Carey Mulligan was something worth fighting for (which is hard because she strikes me as blah) but I believed it and I rooted for him. Hopefully, the next person to see this movie will feel the same!