Nicolas Winding Refn's films tend to be very dividing with audiences. For every lover of Valhalla Rising, Bronson and the Pusher trilogy, there's another who thinks his filmography reads like a cliched director starving for arthouse glory. From what I've seen (Bronson and Valhalla Rising), I belong firmly in the former. Both of those films are strong, beautiful epics in there own right with two excellent performances from Tom Hardy and Mads Mikkelsen. Refn's latest, Drive, is just as good as these while remaining completely different from them.
Drive tells the story of a Hollywood stunt driver (Ryan Gosling) who moonlights as a getaway driver for thieves and criminals in Los Angeles. After a chance encounter with his beautiful next door neighbour (Carey Mulligan), the driver begins a relationship that slowly begins to change his life for the better. The problem is, he's entangled in a plot with two vicious gangters (Ron Perlman and Albert Brooks) who are hell bent on ruining the driver's new life.
Joining the previously mentioned are Christina Hendricks (who turns in a wonderful, albeit small performance), Oscar Isaacs and the fantastically talented Bryan Cranston. Drive is the type of film that lives and dies by it's cast. So it's important that all these bit players bring their A-game. Which, thankfully, they do. Each line is delivered so well it's hard to take your eyes of the screen, even in the film's many disturbingly violent scenes. It's a wonderful feeling to get completely lost in a film's story and characters and Drive really grabs you. There are a few moments of complete silence in the film, where the two leads, Gosling and Mulligan, just stare at through each other's eyes and it feels like these two people are genuinely falling in love with each other. It's very effective and very emotional. Add in the film's great 80's style pop and it just clicks. If Drive were performed on a stage with the same actors and music, it would still be a great success.
Refn manages to create an LA that feels like the city we know from L.A. Confidential or any other hard-boiled mystery thriller. It's lonely and isolating streets are captured perfectly and work as the perfect setting for the driver's quest. Perhaps the best example of Refn's LA is in the film's opening scene, where Gosling and two thieves must evade the LAPD as they search the cities' back alleys and bridges for the driver's car. Like all good crime thrillers of the past, the city, too, is a character.
If you're a fan of the filmmaker's previous work, you'll love Drive. If you're looking for a very adult action film, you'll love Drive. If you appreciate thought-provoking cinema, you'll love Drive. It's a tense throwback to 70's or 80's thrillers that feels like it's a mix of Walter Hill and William Friedkin. If you get an opportunity to check it out; do so.
