DRIVE; Carlisle's Final Word.

“If I drive for you, you get your money.”

Driver.

Care for another toothpick Ryan?

Script Logic; 1/2

Pace; 1/2

Acting; 1/2

Aesthetic; 2/2

Originality & Intention; 1/2

Final Score; 6/10

My other half went through something of a Ryan Gosling phase (sure it had nothing to do with his irritating good-looks or his talent), so we ended up watching this and Only God Forgives. She also watched A Place Beyond The Pines, but I missed that. Never mind.

Of this and Only God Forgives (my Gosling double-bill) this was the more coherent. The majority of the acting is excellent, with great support from Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston and Albert Brooks (slightly more slimy and sinister here than in Finding Nemo). This time, however, it’s Ryan Gosling who lets the side down; his ‘mysterious stuntman driver’ is pitched somewhere between extrovert and autistic, and neither the director nor Gosling seem to have worked out which it is. Is he either a shy confidence-challenged recluse who can barely say two words to the girl he adores from afar, or, is he the kind of “look at me everyone” dick who wears a white leather jacket with a scorpion emblazoned across the back and chews a toothpick? Those are two very different directions for one character… Aside from that, the film tells a fairly by-the-numbers story of double crossing petty crooks and robbers, and all that sets it apart from the others of its ilk is a more thoughtful pace and a pointless 80’s setting (not that this is ever relevant to anything except the overall look and soundtrack). Still, you’ll be entertained while it’s on; it’s only afterwards that you realise there was no surprises and you’ve seen this all before only better. 

Perhaps it would be more enjoyable if it wasn’t let down by its many pretensions, perhaps the most irritating of all is the film's refusing to give the main character a name. Why even do that? It’s not clever. He's hardly an 'Everyman' as that would imply...