DRIVE [Movie Review] | www.celebritycloseups.com

Every once in awhile comes a movie that's so well put together and so well-acted and well-directed that one can forgive -- and even forget -- the clichéd tiredness of the plot and the same old tropes getting recycled in yet another story. Drive (based on the 2003 book of the same name) is such a film. Masterfully directed by Nicolas Winding Refn (who also directed Tom Hardy's breakout performance in the film, Bronson), and featuring revelatory turns by Ryan Gosling and Albert Brooks (trust me when I say you'll never quite look at him the same way again), Drive is a film at once completely familiar, and yet unlike anything you've seen before.

Ryan stars as an unnamed B-movie stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver/wheelman and also works part-time as a mechanic for a perennially down on his luck guy named Shannon (played beautifully by Bryan Cranston). Shannon also acts as Driver's go-to wheels guy and business manager, and has a long-standing relationship with a loan shark named Bernie (Albert Brooks). Driver is the quiet, stoic type to a tee - in fact, his very stillness seems to be an integral part of his being. But it's that very self-same stillness and poise that attracts his neighbor, Irene (played by Carey Mulligan) and her son to him. When we first meet Irene and her son, Irene's husband is still in prison, and Driver fills in the gap in their lives as a surrogate husband and father, but one with a curiously detached aura about him (in fact, he doesn't even make a move on Irene until much, much later in the film.)

The plot is one we've all seen before - boy falls for girl with shady friends, boy gets in over his head trying to protect said girl, boy tries to do the right thing and gets burned, cue the mayhem and violence. But the true beauty and genius of Drive is that it all feels completely fresh. The way the film is lit and shot is transcendent, the story zigs when it should zag, the music is completely counter-intuitive for the genre and yet somehow manages to work, and the assured, deft acting by the entire cast, from top to bottom, is astounding, and it evokes the best of the minimalist noir films directed by Walter Hill and William Friedkin.

The film's slow, almost leisurely pace works as a great ballast to the explosive violence and moments of extreme action. It's a movie that's not afraid to mix fairy-tale-like loving close-ups of Irene and contrast those with Driver brutally beating a would-be assassin to death. Drive isn't afraid to both work within and against the confines of the noir thriller, and will stay with you long after the final credits have rolled.

Rating:
4.5 out of 5 stars