A Thrill Ride of Style, Sound And Emotion…
There are only a few films in history that overall in every instance covers a lot of the cinematic spectrum in every frame in a near enough perfect state. I can tell you glad that ‘Drive’ a film directed by Nicholas Winding Refn suits this statement to the up-most with it’s style, sound and visual quality alone.
The main plot summary is essentially Ryan Gosling play’s this mysterious man who is simply referred to as ‘Driver’ throughout the entirety of the film, who has multiple jobs being a garage mechanic, a Hollywood stuntman and a getaway driver in which he has a specific work ethos in that you tell him all the information such as the name of the street and the time, he’ll be there for 5 minuets. You get the job done in those 5 minuets, he’s your man.
In the aftermath of the heist, ‘Driver’ falls in love with his neighbour, Irene (Carey Mulligan) whose husband is in prison and who’s looking after her child Benicio. However all this constant interaction with ‘Driver’ and Irene is short-lived as Irene’s husband Standard Gabriel is released from prison which implicates ‘Driver’ into an uneasy life or death situation.
First and foremost I will just put it out there and say that after watching ‘Drive’, it is now one my favourite films that I have watched. The funny thing about saying this however is that a lot of others tend to disagree with this and say it’s overrated,which is perfectly fine and probably one of the reasons why I like it so much. Knowing that a lot of people who are expected something of the occasional Hollywood fare of ‘shoot now and shoot later’ and then getting disappointed in how it’s nothing like the average film, just adds up to how unique this film is to me.
So to start with I think it’s fair to say that looking at a brief synopsis of this film, it is very much like a ‘B’ movie with how we have this existential ‘Driver’ character who isn’t a very wordy man, but he’s a man who’s very passive-exterior and has that quiet strength that carries on throughout the length of the film leaving only a mystery for the audience. Then he meets Carey Mulligans character who is all sweet and innocent and is immediately swept away by the ‘Driver’s’ self-assurance and good nature. However, there are complications which the ‘Driver’ has to resolve which is mainly due to helping Irene’s husband with a certain money problem. Even though it plays out to be this ‘B’ movie story-line, there are many features which really make this film stand out from others. One of those reasons is of course the visuals and how they really add to this life and character, whilst it makes the film look more surreal.
The film does have a really beautiful eye to it considering that the majority of the film is mainly down to the lightning and the cinematography. The lightning especially owes a lot to the shift in mood for example when Irene tells the ‘Driver’ in the car that her husband is coming out of jail, and all of a sudden, the lighting of the orange turns to this dark crimson colour and not only does this signify metaphorically that things are going to get a lot more dark and complicated for the ‘Driver’, but it also reminds us, the audience, that Refn does have this visual flare. I find it interesting how Refn directed a nuts and bolts story-line of ‘the hero becoming triumphant in the end’ whilst having this art-house look and feel integrated into his film piece; it’s really something you don’t naturally see and just shows where Refn came from and how he has in fact used his own film knowledge and applied it to his own works. I would say the scene that pretty much sums up Refn and ‘Driver’ as a whole would be the ‘elevator’ sequence when we see ‘Driver’ and Irene go down the elevator with the henchman. It’s just the way the scene plays out at first to be this dream-like momentary collision between ‘Driver’ and Irene and how they share their romance with each other and then as that ends, that really does eclipse the way romance is expressed in this film. On the flip side of the scene to when Irene and ‘Driver’ stop embracing each other in this surreal way, we also get to see the explosiveness of violence in this film when ‘Driver’ grabs the henchman and basically smashes the henchman’s head repeatedly, it just adds more clarity on this ‘Driver’ character and how he is this charming yet psychotic figure which in itself is very reminiscent of over ‘Drive’ characters such as Travis Bickle from ‘Taxi Driver‘ and Kowalski played by Barry Newman in ‘Vanishing Point‘.
Like the lightning and the camera work, the sound track is also a great asset to this film considering that there isn’t a lot of dialogue, you could argue that the soundtrack more than enough makes up for that by providing the right music and the right moments. Even though I have talked about it already, but the music within the ‘elevator’ sequence is one of the key components as to why this scene clarifies the persona of this film. It’s only played for a brief moment, but the soundtrack within that surreal moment between Irene and ‘Driver’ to me anyway always gives goosebumps which only proves how good the decision making was for the music and the other cinematic elements. As for the songs that were placed in the film, again they did fit the persona of this film and really blended in well when we did see the ‘Driver’ going around this dark romantic side of L.A. My favourite has got to be the opening credits song done by Kavinsky which again goes along to what ever the ‘Driver’ is or has done on the film.
To end this review all I can say to you reading this review, I really recommend to watch this film. For me at least, all of the cinematic aesthetics that have gone in to this film are done near enough perfectly. Each segment of the film in terms of looking at it visually is something to admire and all the praise really does go to Refn and due to the fact that we do see how Refn thinks about film and how he implements his ideas. The performances of the characters especially the side roles of Bryan Cranston and Christina Hendricks really do provide and flesh out the characters of Irene and ‘Driver in a surreal way. This is by far one of my favourite films due to the fact that visually in looks stunning and reminds a lot of the late and great David Lynch in how surreal the visuals look.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – Alex Rabbitte (Published 2nd September 2014)