Drive
An unnamed man with a knack for driving finds his life changed forever after the convicted husband of his love interest and neighbour is released from prison. Despite being both a mechanic and a stuntman by day, the driver works as a getaway driver by night and it’s a job that pulls him into the criminal underworld without offering a way out. After choosing to help out his neighbour’s husband in order to ensure the safety those he cares about, the driver is dragged even further into danger when he inadvertently becomes involved in a million dollar heist.
The film that made Ryan Gosling the cool guy that we know today, Drive is much more than the title suggests and it’s one of the most fascinating character studies to come out of the Nicolas Winding Refn film canon. Despite starting off in a Need For Speed style, the film is much deeper than any synopsis can infer and this makes it perhaps the least ‘Refn’ movie on the surface despite being a fully realised director piece underneath. For perhaps the only time in his career Nicolas Winding Refn elects not to go for style over substance. Gone are the red corridors and slow motion montages. He gives us real characters with strengths and weaknesses; understandable people who experience emotions and pain with a palpable sense of regret and responsibility.
At its heart, Drive is Refn’s most hopeful movie and yet it doesn’t give into its audience easily. Every step Gosling’s Driver makes in the right direction only propels the story into further uncertainty but faith in a happy ending, at least for some of the characters, never falters as each element is slowly unravelled with the intention of saving the most innocent of victims within the story.
As an under-the-radar type of guy, Driver’s fate is perhaps the most uncertain of all. He’s a stuntman behind a mask, a shy and reserved everyman who can barely be considered human until he meets the woman who will change his life. By playing family man Driver finds a purpose, a drive, which leads him to question his own lack of morals. Most interestingly of all, the film shows a man who will do anything to protect those he loves from harm and for this reason it never feels as cold or calculated as Refn’s other work. Even after the bloodbath is over the movie still manages to keep its head above water and it’s another remarkable work from Denmark’s finest filmmaker.
