DRIVE - new film from Nicolas Winding Refn - Page 2

Yeah, you put your finger on what I thought was Driver's principal weakness: Ryan Gosling lacks the charisma and sheer animal magnetism that Eastwood, Marvin, and McQueen always brought to their hardbitten, Men of few words, roles. Still, like you, I thought Driver had some redeeming virtues, mostly owed to its outstanding supporting cast, that saved it from being a total loss.

I don't blame Gosling. He's been good in other movies. The issue here is that the director is just posturing. He saw a bunch of '80s movies like To Live and Die in LA, Manhunter, and The Stunt Man (among many others) and said, "Hey, I can do that!" But there's no depth or substance or complexity in the story. The Driver character isn't thinking anything, because there's nothing for him to think about. He's just going through the motions because the script is just going through the motions, imitating other movies that the director saw and liked.

At least when Tarantino lifts pieces from his favorite movies, he mixes and matches and combines them into something uniquely his own, something that reflects his personality and voice as a filmmaker. Drive fails to accomplish that. It's not an "homage" or "pastiche." It's just a copycat.

Are you saying that's a bad thing? I think his character was pretty interesting, despite his lack of intellect. He wasn't a very straight-forward character. He was the "good" guy, but the typical good guy

I didn't hate the movie. I was just hoping for a lot more out of it than I wound up getting.

Since there wasn't a thread here which is quite a shocker and some of the cranky critics over at BD forum only wants to talk about the "technical" of the film I would like start one here for easily the best picture of 2011. Albert Brooks at least should have 100% deserve a best supporting actor nod. Even Mr ugly Ron perlman could have a best supporting nod with his sinister, evil, mean Nico character.

There is so much to talk about this master piece that I'm sure will be much debated here and I know some will not like it like most so that's fine and welcome but please don't make a troll remark like this clown over at BD that said there was no suspense in this film at all and expect me to reply or take it seriously. There was heart titillating suspense right off the bat within seconds of the film when Gosling was waiting for the 2nd henchman in his car to come out of the robbery/heist. And many scenes like that is what made it its trademark.

I have heard great things about this movie.
My BD copy arrived today...might be able to fire it up tonite.

Watched tonite.
So much is RIGHT with this movie....BUT....
As it turns out, Drive is a film in search of a destination.
Unfortunately, it really is unsure of what it wants to say or go.

Allegedly, this is a movie about "driving....."
In reality, driving has almost nothing to do with the story arc.
This is a story about revenge...or something else.

The cinematography is superb, and without it, I don't how far I would have lasted.

Fine performance by Gosling and CM (again).
Brooks and Perlman are OK, but nothing spectacular.

The pop songs pulled me right out, very poor decision to include them in the soundtrack (which was perfect).

Now you see, even though I don't agree, it's an Interesting take on the film and all valid opinions. However, to me the weak link character was Carrie mulligan,..I thought she had no chemistry with Gosling and was so vacuous it was like vanilla beans topping on vanilla ice cream.

I watched it again and the music esp that "Real human being" that kept on playing was really a turn off and too kiddy-ish,.. it sounded like some japanese anime karaoke track that just didn't fit at all. If this was a throw back to the 80s then why not Night moves by Bog seger or "Drive" by the Cars. Both sober and melancholic to go with the mood of the film.

I agree with your thoughts on this one. Watched this last night and it did not work for me mainly due to the completely unconvincing main character. Glad I rented.

On a positive note, audio worked well considering the type of film this is.
PQ and the cinematography were both excellent IMO and the most impressive aspects of this disc.

Same here. I ALMOST turned it off at just over the 1 hour mark since it was doing very little for me, but the cinematography/PQ kept me interested enough to watch until the end.

The CM and RG characters have what appears to be a very slight entanglement, at least based on what we see presented on-screen.
As such, it is unconvincing our hero's consequent actions are credible in any way.



+1
The odd thing is the film music itself was wonderfully "sober and melancholic."

Oh well, so it goes...

I loved Carey Mulligan's performance and thought Refn's decision to cast her as Irene was inspired. She was adorable and hugely appealing, to me at least. I understood perfectly why the Driver was attracted to her, and by extension to her son.

I thought the lack of much chemistry between Mulligan and Gosling was inevitable. The way the Driver was written and the way Gosling portrayed him meant that he had no discernable chemistry with anyone, not even his longtime employer and bone loyal friend, Shannon (Bryan Cranston). The only indication of any physical attraction between the Driver and Irene came in the elevator scene but there didn't seem to be any sparks either before or after.

I also liked Carey Mulligan's performance. You do know that she lobbied for the part as it was originally written as an older Hispanic character? She played exactly as someone who finds themselves around someone who they think of as a semi-celebrity (due to him being a movie stunt driver) and the awe and awkwardness of it.

I have a very short list of movies that I collect to watch again and "Drive" will now be added to them. It is a classic.

I knew you were going to say that, your admiration for CM is no secret. I like here too but when I saw her 1st in the film walk past him in the parking lot, I was like..oh no they look too much alike. I mean look at their haircuts, it's almost identical- short, parted on the side they look like brother and sister for crying out loud. Not only that, but they both had similar personalities...quite and soft spoken. There needs to be some contrast in look and behavior to create some attraction and passion since they are the crux of the film so the focus is alot on them 2.

Cannot wait to watch Drive again this weekend. Still have the soundtrack in regular rotation in the car.

I have developed a love-hate relationship with this film. Despite my profound dislike of Ryan Gosling's performance, the character of the Driver has nonetheless grown on me. The movie is so well done in terms of most of its production values that even a rotten performance by its star didn't spoil it. It makes me wonder what it could have been with a star who didn't go as far into his Marlon-Brando-At-The-Actors-Studio-Method bag as Gosling did. I'm still wondering what the Toothpick was about More seriously, Gosling apparently got the right to pick the director written into his contract, so Refn got the gig only after pitching what he wanted to do with the film to Gosling. That explains a lot.

Ok gwsat I feel your pain and would like to entertain your wish as to would have been your choice since the main character is your only issue. I have gone through all the top choices at your disposal like Leo, Cruise, Keanu, Damon, Downey, Evans, Worthington, Levitt, Macgregor, Statham, Pitt, Affleck, Walhberg, Renner,..which is a decent list right?

Well, I mean some of those like Cruise, Damon, Keanu, Renner could have been ok but quite frankly, I really think Gosling edge them all out because he's got that ice cold, detached, devilish demeanor part down pretty good. But go ahead and be the director, I'm curious who you would cast over Gosling.

I think some around here are confusing character with performance.

I think they both go hand in hand. Plus gwsat didn't have problem with the character. Here's what he said: "the character of the Driver has nonetheless grown on me". Therefore, Gosling's interpretation or performance is what could be replaced with someone else to his liking.

Like everything in Drive, this was an affectation that the director picked up from other movies that he likes. Chewing on a toothpick has been a trait of "tough guys" in many films, notably Stallone in Cobra and Chow Yun-Fat in several of his movies with John Woo. It was also parodied in Hot Fuzz.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...xationFixation

Exactemento! I thought the Driver himself was a cool and existential conundrum and could have been a great character given a better performance than Gosling provided. Unfortunately, Gosling's highly stylized performance put me off rather than drawing me into this fascinating but profoundly flawed guy. The toothpick was the last straw.

I have James Sallis' Book upon which the film is based and am looking forward to reading it. From all indications it is first class noir fiction. Will report further after I have read the novel.

I watched a rental of the film last night and liked it for the neo-noir that it is. In fact I liked it enough to order the Blu-ray this morning. I have had the soundtrack for some time so it was good to finally see the music put to movie. Ryan Gosling continues to impress and I thought Carey Mulligan was fine. Some people didn't see the chemistry between the characters but I felt it was a chemistry that is more sensed than seen and it was an extremely restrained one due to several factors. The movie doesn't provide the back-story to Driver as he is called in the book but in the film you are given the sense that he comes from a life of hard knocks. The love story is not part of the original story but it adds that bit of humanity everyone is looking for. Roger Ebert compared Gosling to McQueen in this film and to some degree I can see this especially if one is comparing Drive to Peckinpah's The Getaway. I liked the visual style Nicolas Winding Refn (Valhalla Rising) brought to the film combined with the music made it seem like a throwback to another era.

The sequel to the James Sallis book Drive is coming out in April and titled Driven so you can guess where this will lead.

Well, I'm still curious who you would like to cast as your "driver"

I was going mention that, you can totally tell that Gosling was channeling McQueen in those slow quiet moments where he doesn't say anything except for a slight smirk. It's kinda a coincidence that Gosling haircut even is reminiscent of McQueen so it was seeing an young early version of him. I know gwsat is not feeling this at all.

Is this movie in any way similiar to the 1978 film THE DRIVER staring Ryan O'Neal?

I like Gosling's work in Ides of March, but found him lacked emotion in this movie, sort of reminding me of Keanu. As for CM, never saw her other movies but she is like a modern day Doris Day. I saw very little chemistry between the 2 leads.

As for a modern day film noir, I do enjoyed the movie and its pacing.