"Drive" to the theaters... and go see a different movie.
Oh boy, here we go. The Clippers game is on, there is a pulsing music playing under and a man is on his cell phone overlooking Los Angeles, "I give you five minutes and I'm yours. One minute on either side and you're on your own. I don't carry a gun, I don't get my hands dirty. I DRIVE."
So long as we're clear on that.
The pulsing continues, the man waits in his Chevy Impala "the most popular vehicle in California... no one will notice.", he picks up one masked, gunned man... he waits... the clock ticks... the other masked felon runs out of the building. They go. We never know anything more of this driver than he is the driver. He is refered to as 'kid' by some, 'the driver' by others. All we need to know, apparently, is that he is played by Ryan Gosling-- heart throb de jour and he is about to meet Irene, played by Carey Mulligan-- girl next door (literally in this film) de jour. That is all we get to know. Are you ready?
The pulsing music continues, the gloves come on delicately, the gloves come off.... the wheel gets gripped like it's an old friend.... the engine rumbles... That is the beginning of this film, I am still waiting for my mind to be finished with it.
To say that it was an unfortunate miss of a good cast would be too easy on the film. To say it was a wasted opportunity would be closer to the mark, to say it was pretentious and needed a legitimate editor is probably a bullseye.
I'm pretty sure it's safe to assume that the filmmakers peed themselves a little when they convinced Ryan Gosling to take this role. I think it's also safe to assume that Carey Mulligan signed on to what appeared (on paper at least) to be an interesting plot because Ryan Gosling was already on board. Then we go from there.
Here, in brief (so as to not waste any more of my own time or yours on this film) is what the problem was: every interesting moment was immediately followed by something corny, predictable and utterly violent; the chemistry that could have existed between Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan was destroyed by the overly overused script; and basically anything remotely interesting was quickly D.O.A. by a hit and run.
The filmmaker, Nicolas Winding Refn, was/is clearly in love with the 1980's and muscle cars. He found a device to be able to get them both in a film, cudos to him on that. Other than watching a filmmaker fulfill a life long dream of driving a 1970's Pontiac down the L.A. River, I don't see the point for the rest of us getting too excited.
Despite the heavy handedness, it wasn't so much the script that was the real bother, or the wasted opportunities with some great actors (Albert Brooks and Bryan Cranston were particularly stymied by an over-used plot); it was that the filmmakers were one of two things: exceedingly filled with pretense and arrogance about their plodding pacing and wanted you to wallow through it because they're 'artsy' OR they were guys wanting to make a violent heist film and just completely missed the mark with sub-plots that went nowhere.
If Mr. Refn wanted to make a throw back film complete with the blood, guts, quiet hero and muscled villains; that would be fine, but maybe be a little tongue in cheek about it-- those films were not considered good in the '80's either. OR if he had wanted to make a heist film with the blood and gore that he chose to sprinkle through the piece, also fine; but find a proper editor and a better writer. This film was trying to make Arnold Schwartzenegger a fixture on the BBC... it just doesn't work, and the more you stare at the screen the more you say to yourself, 'is this seriously what he's trying to do? Putting the Governator in Jane Eyre?' and the answer ends up being 'YES!'.
Let me remind you, the reason this film was such a disaster is because it had opportunities and moments. I mean, they had a scene at the Big Six Market on the corner of Coronado and 6th street. Any place that will film in the old ghetto market where I used to buy generic Oreo cookies will get a few chances with me to flush out it's story; the problem was, the story was borrowed from every tired gangster movie ever made (including a totally random T & A show at a strip club), and then borrowed it over and over and over again. I can prove this by the film's own dialogue:
"They want me to rob a pawn shop or they'll hurt Irene."
"You just got caught up in the wrong heist, kid.",
"If I don't do this, they'll go after Irene."
"You do this and the girl is protected",
"Why'd you go an tell them about the girl?!"
"I promise, the girl won't be touched. I can't say the same for you."
"You gotta get outta here. It's not safe for you now."
"Being with you is the best thing that ever happened to me."
Cue the Belinda Carlisle.
So long as we're clear on that.
The pulsing continues, the man waits in his Chevy Impala "the most popular vehicle in California... no one will notice.", he picks up one masked, gunned man... he waits... the clock ticks... the other masked felon runs out of the building. They go. We never know anything more of this driver than he is the driver. He is refered to as 'kid' by some, 'the driver' by others. All we need to know, apparently, is that he is played by Ryan Gosling-- heart throb de jour and he is about to meet Irene, played by Carey Mulligan-- girl next door (literally in this film) de jour. That is all we get to know. Are you ready?
The pulsing music continues, the gloves come on delicately, the gloves come off.... the wheel gets gripped like it's an old friend.... the engine rumbles... That is the beginning of this film, I am still waiting for my mind to be finished with it.
To say that it was an unfortunate miss of a good cast would be too easy on the film. To say it was a wasted opportunity would be closer to the mark, to say it was pretentious and needed a legitimate editor is probably a bullseye.
I'm pretty sure it's safe to assume that the filmmakers peed themselves a little when they convinced Ryan Gosling to take this role. I think it's also safe to assume that Carey Mulligan signed on to what appeared (on paper at least) to be an interesting plot because Ryan Gosling was already on board. Then we go from there.
Here, in brief (so as to not waste any more of my own time or yours on this film) is what the problem was: every interesting moment was immediately followed by something corny, predictable and utterly violent; the chemistry that could have existed between Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan was destroyed by the overly overused script; and basically anything remotely interesting was quickly D.O.A. by a hit and run.
The filmmaker, Nicolas Winding Refn, was/is clearly in love with the 1980's and muscle cars. He found a device to be able to get them both in a film, cudos to him on that. Other than watching a filmmaker fulfill a life long dream of driving a 1970's Pontiac down the L.A. River, I don't see the point for the rest of us getting too excited.
Despite the heavy handedness, it wasn't so much the script that was the real bother, or the wasted opportunities with some great actors (Albert Brooks and Bryan Cranston were particularly stymied by an over-used plot); it was that the filmmakers were one of two things: exceedingly filled with pretense and arrogance about their plodding pacing and wanted you to wallow through it because they're 'artsy' OR they were guys wanting to make a violent heist film and just completely missed the mark with sub-plots that went nowhere.
If Mr. Refn wanted to make a throw back film complete with the blood, guts, quiet hero and muscled villains; that would be fine, but maybe be a little tongue in cheek about it-- those films were not considered good in the '80's either. OR if he had wanted to make a heist film with the blood and gore that he chose to sprinkle through the piece, also fine; but find a proper editor and a better writer. This film was trying to make Arnold Schwartzenegger a fixture on the BBC... it just doesn't work, and the more you stare at the screen the more you say to yourself, 'is this seriously what he's trying to do? Putting the Governator in Jane Eyre?' and the answer ends up being 'YES!'.
Let me remind you, the reason this film was such a disaster is because it had opportunities and moments. I mean, they had a scene at the Big Six Market on the corner of Coronado and 6th street. Any place that will film in the old ghetto market where I used to buy generic Oreo cookies will get a few chances with me to flush out it's story; the problem was, the story was borrowed from every tired gangster movie ever made (including a totally random T & A show at a strip club), and then borrowed it over and over and over again. I can prove this by the film's own dialogue:
"They want me to rob a pawn shop or they'll hurt Irene."
"You just got caught up in the wrong heist, kid.",
"If I don't do this, they'll go after Irene."
"You do this and the girl is protected",
"Why'd you go an tell them about the girl?!"
"I promise, the girl won't be touched. I can't say the same for you."
"You gotta get outta here. It's not safe for you now."
"Being with you is the best thing that ever happened to me."
Cue the Belinda Carlisle.
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