Better keep your hands at ten-and-two! "Drive" gets your heart racing in this violently, action-packed marvel of cinema

Ryan Gosling shows off his uncanny flexibility as an actor and Nicolas Winding Refn directs a masterful piece of art, proving that countless action sequences and hundreds of millions of dollars aren't necessary to create a pulse-pounding, edge-of-your-seat action movie

The opening dialogue is simple and fresh, yet serious and intimidating.


"You give me a time and a place, I give you a five minute window," are quietly but sternly spoken from Ryan Gosling's mouth, as his character known as Driver, nothing else. The camera pans, calmly moving across his gloomy, dark-lit apartment to a medium shot of Driver on the phone, overlooking the dazzling city lights that engulf the Los Angeles night through his window.


"Anything happens in that five minutes and I'm yours no matter what. Anything happens a minute either side of that and you're on your own... I drive." Driver hangs up the phone and soon after the mood is set. Immediately, you are filled with anxiety, which ultimately and forcefully catches up and clings on to the viewer for dear life as the film progresses.


Adapted from the 2005 novel written by James Sallis, Drive is a 2011, super violent, action-crime-drama film brought to life by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn. By day, Driver is a Hollywood stunt driver and garage worker and by night, works as a getaway driver in the world of crime. The movie pays homage and adopts it's style from art house films, the most obvious being the neo-noir style, dominantly incorporating dark, violent and non-archetypal type characters. Morally conflicted and emotional anti-heros are usually the premise of neo-noir films and Driver (Ryan Gosling) is just that.


Aside from knowing the main character is a criminal, you really don't know much about Driver. His past is a mystery and that mystery follows him for most of the film. Driver is a recluse, keeps to himself and rarely associates with anyone other than with his garage boss, Shannon (Bryan Cranston). All of that changes one day when Driver finds himself attached to a beautiful young woman named Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her son Benicio (Kaden Leos). Suddenly Driver's life has changed and he finds himself falling into unfamiliar territory and starts to care for others. Just as Driver begins to gather new perspectives on himself and others, the world of crime that he is involved with catches up to him and throws himself, Irene and Benicio into a world of extreme danger and intense violence involving the west-coast mob.


One of these mob members was Bernie, portrayed by Albert Brooks, who arguably put together the best performance of the film. Brooks played the head of the west-coast mob and his character exuded a very nice, emotional and at times caring personality for a cold-blooded killing gangster. Brooks was able to create a very likeable "bad guy" character which is completely left field of the types of roles he's usually cast for. Unlike other characters, Brooks had a lot of dialogue to work with to help make his character his own, which definitely added to the depth of his performance. What really made this performance great was that he was a believable gangster. The goal of every actor is to make you believe.


And then of course, there's the ever popular Mr. Gosling and the gorgeous Carey Mulligan. Although Refn opted to have his two main characters have as little dialogue as possible - and there is very little - it completely works in favour of the film and their characters, showing off the immense and growing talent of both the stars. Of course great writing and dialogue can propel any given performance to greatness, but Gosling and Mulligan share such beautiful chemistry together and each pull off great performances. Obviously not through their dialogue delivery, but in their body language and chemistry. The relationship the two shared was not one of words, but rather looks. The looks and actions the two shared wrote their story better than any script could have. Great camera work caught the emotion in both of the stars' eyes as they would gaze at one another.


Gosling however showed more depth in his performance through several incredibly intense and stressful scenes. When Irene and her son were in danger, Gosling's character set out to protect them and in several scenes - including shotguns, bullets, cars and hammers - the "badass" came out to play. Although it wasn't much dialogue, Gosling worked it masterfully. The seriousness and emotion on Gosling's face was visibly obvious and mesmerizing and completely sold his performance. Simple but powerful dialogue and very serious scenes propelled Gosling's performance into near perfection.


Under any other director, the film could have just come across as another hokey Hollywood action, chase, car movie like The Fast and the Furious. But Refn's neo-noir style added a huge punch and specific feel to this movie that specific, niche audiences will fall in love with.


Refn and cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel did a masterful job at creating amazing shots that really put the audience in the action and made them part of the movie's world. Simple, yet original camera positioning like within the interior of the car, up close and personal during fight scenes, or even just the simple close-ups on Driver's and Irene's faces when together, beautifully framed the story and delivered the visuals very neatly for the audience to digest.


Drive is a great art-film and a great alternative to the cliche, over-the-top Hollywood films produced today. A very simple story was able to create inventive, immersive and completely suspenseful action sequences through impressive cinematography, perfect directing and great acting performances. Although many may find Drive to be too "alternative" for their liking,  Drive is a beautifully shot film with a simple story produced to greatness.

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Drive - Official Trailer [HD]