There Are No Clean Getaways - Drive review

Posted @ Feb. 07 2012 12:17PM by Shawn - arts-entertainment

Drive is a movie that feels like the love child of 50s and 80s filmmaking.

As odd as that might sound, just hear me out.

Dutch director Nicholas Winding Refn's adaptation of James Sallis's novel Drive is a mashup of a different time. Owing as much to 80s movies due to it's soundtrack and even it's use of hot pink fonts throughout it's opening credits, the movie also harkens back to movies where Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen or Clint Eastwood might have starred years ago.

With a main character (Ryan Gosling) who doesn't have a name, or at least not one we ever hear beyond "Kid" or "Driver", Drive keeps the Man With No Name myth alive and well. Gosling's character is a stunt driver for movies as well as a mechanic who also moonlights in getaway driving for criminals. Although he drives for the criminals, he's not necessarily a criminal himself. "If I drive for you, you get your money. You tell me where we start, where we're going, where we're going afterwards. I give you five minutes when we get there. Anything happens in that five minutes and I'm yours. No matter what. Anything a minute on either side of that and you're on your own. I don't sit in while you're running it down. I don't carry a gun. I drive."

Drive, in it's own violent, stylish way, is the fable of the frog and the scorpion retold. The frog hesitantly helps the scorpion across a river, the scorpion promising not to sting the frog and doom them both. Yet halfway across the rive the scorpion reveals it's true nature and stings the frog, both of them drowning. In this case the driver is the frog. The driver even wears a jacket with a scorpion patch on it's back to visually represent this idea (something at first I thought might have been a clue to his past, maybe a gang sign).

Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman are the scorpion come to life, bringing lots of violence and trouble into the driver's life. The two are business partners and mobsters who the driver's boss at the garage, Shannon (Bryan Cranston), borrowed $300,000 to buy a stock car for the driver to race. Brooks in particular does a particularly nasty turn as Bernie Rose, the sort of villain that scares you not by his presence but in how quickly and easily he can get his hands dirty.

Add into the mix Carey Mulligan's Irene, the driver's potential love interest, who is not only his neighbor in his low rent apartment building, but also married to an ex con (Oscar Isaacs) and mother of a young son, Benecio. While Irene's husband, Standard, is in prison, the driver develops a relationship with her, helping her when she has car problems, spending time with her and her son. While their relationship obviously shows they care about each other, the beauty of it is how little is spoken between the two about their feelings. It's just known they grow to care for each other a great deal, so much so that when Standard's attacked because he owes protection money from his time in prison, the driver steps up to help him out with his driving skills, kicking all the events that lead to Drive's violent, bloody climax into motion.

Drive makes me think of what would have happened if Quentin Tarrantino made movies in the 80s. The only difference is the characters don't need to speak volumes of dialogue and, much like Drive's driver protagonist, feel the less said the better. Gosling's strong silent type doesn't wear out his welcome, instead becomes all the more riveting when stepping up to help Irene's husband and child. He's a hero of a different time, when a man is incredible at one thing, makes no apologies about it, walking the walk and talking the talk. A bit of an enigma, when the violence starts up, the driver is more than capable of taking care of things, allowing the audience to wonder just who this man with no name truly was before the movie began.

Drive is one of those movies that gained word of mouth online, the praise from the critics building a legend for this modest, art house, independent movie. Just like it's protagonist, it's quiet and a slow build but when the cards are down becomes an engaging, exciting roller coaster that will leave audiences trying to catch their breath.