DRIVE

US, 2011, 98 minutes. Colour.
Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Oscar Isaac, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Kaden Leos, Russ Tamblyn.
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.

This film won the Best Director award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. In terms of craft, it is very well done, bringing Los Angeles to life, plenty of action sequences excitingly filmed, long close-ups for allowing the audience to reflect on characters, an atmosphere of tenderness amid some moments of ugly violence.

The director is Danish Nicholas Winding Refn who spent some formative years in New York. He has built up a reputation for some tough drug thrillers, the Pusher series and Bleeder. He also directed the powerfully strange portrait of prison life, Bronson. This is his first film made in the US, bringing a European eye to the city of Los Angeles.

The film works on several levels.

It looks like an action and crime thriller. It opens with a well-timed and well-executed robbery and a night chase eluding police. Later, we are immersed in the world of ugly thugs in LA and another robbery that goes wrong.

It is also a love story of the quietly tender kind.

And, by the end, it has become a vengeance payback film with some very grim deaths.

The star is Ryan Gosling who has proven himself a versatile leading man in his 20s, with such films as The Believer, Half Nelson, Blue Valentine and such romances as The Notebook. Here he is The Driver, no further name given. He is about thirty. We know nothing of his background. He is a stunt driver for movies but also takes on jobs as a getaway driver. He loves driving and is energised as he exercises his skills. He is also an introspective, laconic man who just says enough to get by. His focus is on his driving. He is exact, precise and looks at life very objectively. He is prepared to drive an audition for his friend, mechanic Shannon (Bryan Cranston), to impress former film producer and shady entrepreneur (Albert Brooks leaving his sardonic comedies far behind).

What he has not expected in life is to become personally involved with anyone. He is attracted by his apartment neighbour and her little boy. Carey Mulligan is a star on the rise (An Education, Wall Street 2, Never Let Me Go) and she is charming as a waitress whose husband (Oscar Isaac who was St Joseph in The Nativity Story and Jose Ramos Horta in Balibo) is in prison. She has an engaging little son whom The Driver also befriends. These are the tender scenes, showing The Driver’s potential for emotion and relationships.

Life is not all that easy and The Driver, out of kindness and concern, involves himself in another robbery. The consequences bring out The Driver’s capacity for cold violence and vengeance.

Audiences will go through a range of emotions and responses as they watch Drive. The Driver is a flawed character whose life might have been different and more positive. He lives by a code rather than a morality and is faithful to that code. Which brings him into conflict with those who lack morality and code.

Nicholas Winding Refn has offered us a complex study of a fringe Everyman.

1. Critical acclaim? The film as thriller, crime story, love story, study of a driven character?

2. The Danish background of the director, his perspective on the US and on Los Angeles?

3. The significance of the title: a driving force, a man being driven, a man driving, the name simply, the Driver? Experience of driving, skills? Use?

4. The Los Angeles world, day, night, the nightscapes and the lights? The atmosphere of Echo Park, the apartments, the diners, the pizzerias, the valley, the pawnshops, parking spaces, the roads, the mechanics’ shops? A plausible world?

5. The introduction and the tone, night, the Driver, waiting, his watch on the steering wheel, the thieves, his norms, waiting five minutes, the thieves leaving, the chase, the spotlights, evading the police pursuit? The skill in driving, the nature of the pursuit, delivering the thieves? The Driver disappearing? His appearance as a stuntman, on the film set, dressed as a policeman, his stunt, achievement, Shannon and his congratulations?

6. The anonymous name? A quiet man, introverted and laconic, being attentive and alert, keeping his cool, his clarity? His learning to feel more, become more personal in his relationships, with Irene and her son, his falling in love, saying it was the best thing that happened to him?

7. The Driver, the audience not knowing much of his past life, his apartment, living alone, the chance meeting with Irene, with Benicio, the visit to the apartment, his enjoying simply being with the two? Watching television with Benicio? Driving Irene home from the mechanic’s? Going for drives with her? The change in him?

8. The character of Shannon, his work, his background in films, stunt work, his bad luck, his injury? His work at the mechanic’s, getting the Driver to take Irene home? His plan, his faith in the Driver, the meeting with Bernard, the discussions about the past, the plan, the money for the car, getting the Driver to audition, Bernard agreeing to invest?

9. Bernard and his story, his producing films – and the comment that they were too European! The tone of his character, his relationship with Shannon and working with him, with Nino? Nino and his pizzeria, the comment about Jews running pizza parlours? His being tough, involved in the criminal world?

10. Standard, his relationship with Irene, father of Benicio? In jail? Getting out, his love for Irene, being with his son, meeting the Driver, his wondering about him, his becoming friends with him, sharing stories with him? His being bashed? The Driver finding him, his involvement, agreeing to the robbery, his time conditions, the car, Blanche and his being unwilling for her to be part of it, Blanche getting away with the money, Standard and his coming out of the pawnshop, his being shot? The escape?

11. Irene, being interviewed by the police, her sadness at Standard’s death, with the Driver, the experience in the elevator, the thug pursuing them, the Driver’s brutality in his death, her slapping him? The reconciliation, a possible future?

12. The thugs, working with Nino, bashing Standard? The Driver’s pursuit of them, his violence, the deaths, the two men attacking the bungalow, killing Blanche, the Driver’s violence with them? His pursuit of the other killers?

13. Shannon, his talking with Bernard, endangering Irene and her son, the Driver’s threats? Shannon meeting with Bernard? Bernard killing him, the knife, the slow bleeding? Cleaning the scalpel and putting it back?

14. The plan, Bernard not knowing what Nino was doing? The money, the Philadelphia family? The Driver, Nino and the setup? The robbery, the consequences for the Mafia on the east coast? Bernard and his anger?

15. Nino, his personality, harsh, language? His planning the robbery? The Driver chasing him, the crash, over the cliff, drowning him in the ocean?

16. The Driver confronting Bernard in the restaurant? Their talk, the flash-forward to the mutual stabbing, Bernard’s death? The long close-up of the Driver, his opening his eye, driving, leaving the money in the parking lot? The vengeance theme and its being played out?

17. The technical bravura of the film, the action sequences, the depiction of violence, the humanity, love and tenderness? The long close-ups, the profiles?

18. The musical score, the atmosphere, the lyrics – especially at the end, the hero having to be human?