Drive

Drive marks a different turn for a young pretty idol like Ryan Gosling who has charmed people with his looks and quiet demeanor, but this film is meant to show the opposite of his romantic side. This time, he takes on a role that is similar to what most Hollywood stars take on as they reach their 30s or 40s, like Harrison Ford or George Clooney, which is to take make choices in which they can offer deep looks into the feelings and consciences of men. There’s a masculine, gritty edge to what most macho stars can display when it comes to violence and action and a heartfelt side to them as they wish to follow a moral code of theirs that makes them into chivalrous knights. Gosling has walked into that area in his recent early 30s and leaves behind a romantic drama that would have restricted to being another pretty face. Yet Gosling has hardly been restricted as a pretty face icon for young people since he had been doing very serious drama from the beginning of his 20s, such as The Believer to The United States of Leland to Half Nelson. The difference with his character in Driver from his other roles is that it’s one of the few times we see him as a person with a sense of morality, unlike a bigoted Jew in The Believer or an arrogant D.A. in Fracture or a murderous teen in Murder by Numbers. It’s the role where he is once again caught up in the dark side of humanity, but he spends much of this film trying to do battle with evil out of a sense of morality. As violent and dangerous as he grows in the film, one cannot forget that there still lingers a sense of moral purpose behind his agenda, which puts him in the position of heroic movie stars like the few I mentioned earlier. Through this variation of roles, he has shown that he is capable of taking on serious roles that are the opposite of what young people would expect to see in an attractive leading man. He already has an Oscar nomination on his credentials and he may get one in the future, although he lost was snubbed of one on Blue Valentine which people had hoped he would receive. Driver may be the next best film of his serious roles that will earn him more awards and nominations, but it also secures his role as a daring movie star in the way he takes on rough action and gory violence with deep thought and intensity in his behavior that he could easily become the star of an action/adventure flick.

However, this film is beyond an action flick as it spends a great deal of time in deep moments with Gosling’s nameless character “The Driver”, who spends many scenes without many words and few other expressions than just the gentle look in his eyes that implies a smirk or a kind assurance. He rarely has to express himself as angry or devastated because he looks as though he is good at predicting trouble without much difficulty. He’s like a battle-scarred warrior who has seen tumultuous events that have made him wiser and sharp-eyed about his surroundings that he can smell danger and act quickly without blinking or flinching. The more the camera follows him from behind his jacket with the sign of the scorpion as he walks at the center of the frame, he looks isolated and alone in a dangerous world, like a cowboy walking alone into the horizon to face the world on his own. Most of his time alone is restricted to his car as we spend many shots of his face from in front, to the side, and into his reflection in the rear view mirror. He is alone when he faces the road and sits in the car without passengers for most of his driving time and looks with the same expression of awareness and good senses of his surroundings. He’s willingly facing the world on his own and taking action without hesitation like a robot, but not a soulless robot. He seems like he knows what he must do like he’s programmed to do it, but is aware of what purpose he is aiming for. From the moment he meets Carey Mulligan’s character Irene, we can tell he is drawn to her and cares about her without seeing his mouth drool or talking flirtatious with her. He is very easy in his mannerisms because he has no trouble with socializing or helping out people since he gives her and her son a ride home without complaints or nervous energy. From this moment of attraction to her, we can tell that she is a woman that he finds worth protecting from the dangers that are about to plague their lives. Throughout the film, his purpose in fighting off the dangerous forces of the violent underworld of urban Los Angeles is motivated by a sense of love and devotion to the young woman and her son, which often drives him to the most violent behavior ever.

Whenever he takes on violent methods to deal with the underworld and avoid getting killed, he rarely screams like an angry avenger or smiles like a sadistic killer, but keeps the same expression as he usually does. He is not openly afraid of violence or excited by it, he has a very banal acceptance of it as though he can never escape it and will take it in when Death comes looking for him. Violence is clearly something that he has had much experience with in the past, which affects his mood and behavior that he has just learned to accept it and use when necessary. There’s even a point where he hits a woman and threatens to hurt her more if she doesn’t provide him with vital answers and hardly flinches or gives her any warning before he does it. He very cautiously and patiently makes his moves of violence without overreacting or giving a warning, he takes his time and acts quietly, which makes him more unpredictable and tense as to how he is going to act. He’s like a silent predator about to make his mark on his prey through patience and softness before he can finally catch it and hurt it as much as he wants. The build-up is nicely done, yet the violence that results is not as interesting as it is simply gory and no different from what kind of graphic violence that exists in many movies today that I wonder why it was necessary for the director Nicholas Winding Refn to get so excessive with it like out of a Tarantino flick. It ruins the mood and just shows off special ways to hurt or kill people like it’s another entertaining spectacle of gore and feels out of place with the emotional mood of the film.

 Overall, the film is not a commentary on violence or a spectacle on the subject matter, but rather just a series of events that the "Driver" is surrounded by because he is caught up in an underworld of the L.A. area that he cannot escape from. This can easily come off as a neo-noir about a man who confronts his demons in an urban landscape or one of the many crime-dramas that depict Los Angeles for its dirty side (e.g. Heat, Crash). Whatever it is labelled, it is a film that Gosling shines in that helps cement his image as more than a pretty face and assures us that he will play more serious projects soon.