Less petrol-headed actioner than human drama

Rating: 7/10 (11 January 2014)

Version I saw: UK Blu-ray release (but watched on CRT TV)
Actors: 7/10
Plot/script: 6/10
Photography/visual style: 7/10
Music/score: 6/10
Overall: 7/10
Drive is about a mechanic and stunt driver (played by Ryan Gosling) who moonlights as an underworld getaway driver. Given this summary, you would expect exciting chase scenes, a dumb plot and probably some likable but slightly sleazy characters.
The film is nothing like that, though. There are action scenes, certainly, and some of them are quite exciting, but the focus is very much on the human drama, and especially the relationship between the (unnamed) main character and his single-mother neighbour, played by Carey Mulligan.
All this is filmed beautifully by the rapidly rising director Nicholas Winding Refn. It's visually quite a stunning film, and the main character has an underlying innocence that sometimes bursts through his near-autistic social awkwardness. I wouldn't go as far as some who named it unequivocally Film of the Year, but I look forward to more from Gosling and Winding Refn.
For my full review, see my independent film blog on Blogspot, Cinema Inferno: http://cinemainferno-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/drive-2011.html