A Modern Man with no Name

Rating: 9/10 (20 December 2017)

The driver is a mystery. A man with no name, no past, and a an unknown future. Stunt driver by day, Getaway driver by night, He lives in a world of self-imposed violence. A world he can't seem too escape from... until he meets the damsel next door.
A single mother named Irene, breathes life into him, humanizes him, if only for a short time. After her boyfriend, Standard, is released from prison, the thought of a relationship with her is broken. This boils him to a rage yet it's not easily apparent in Gosling's stoic face. "You shut your mouth or I'll kick your teeth down your throat and shut it for you" is his response to a well-meaning stranger. She was the one to get him out of the pit he's in, now he's lost her.
Soon he finds himself in another situation where his skills as a stunt driver are needed. Standard is at arms with some sketchy people. In order to prevent them from hurting Irene and her son, he must once again go into the frey. There's no reason for him to risk his life for people he hardly knows, but maybe he feels he has to complete a mission in order to win the girl. In one brilliant shot, immediately after a shootout at a motel, his blood-smeared face is shown creeping slowly back into the darkness, slowly returning to his world of darkness. As the following events unfold, the driver's skills are put to the test. In one instance he's forced to show Irene just how brutal he can be by stomping a man too death. She backs away in horror. The driver then looks like a sad puppy who has just upset his owner. He doesn't want the girl he's grown to care so much about to look at him as if he's a monster, but what's done is done.
Eventually, he spirals so deep into the belly of the whale that he has to go on the run. The time he spent with Irene was special, but now he must go back into the violent world which he knows best.