Drive is an interesting and engaging film that, while excellent, may suffer from marketing and viewer expectations.

Driver(Ryan Gosling)  is a quiet man who’s generally spartan lifestyle is offset but two side jobs: Stunt driver for movies and getaway driver for criminals. He is very good at both and they are enough for him until he comes across an attractive neighbor, Irene ( Carey Mulligan) and her son who are in need of various forms of help while the man of the house, Standard (Oscar Isaac) is cooling his heels in jail. In the meantime, Driver’s boss at the car shop he works at, Shannon (Bryan Cranston), has his eyes on putting Driver behind the wheel of a professional race car. To get this moving, Shannon borrows money from two local gangsters, Bernie (Albert Brooks), and Nino (Ron Perlman). When Standard gets out of jail and Driver tries to help him get clear of some loanshark trouble, all of these elements collide in a startling explosion of death and violence.

Drive is not a Fast and the Furious type movie by any means at all and the attempts to make this look like an action movie are downright fraudulent. Sure, there are chase scenes and there is violence but the film structure and nature of that violence is not puffy action. This is a thoughtful and moving drama that is seeped in crime elements and the explosive violence that can come from making bad choices when dealing with bad people.

The heart of the thing is a love story and that is what fuels most of the violence that is on hand. It is Driver’s love for Irene that gets him on the wrong side of bad people with guns and his proficiency in dealing with that makes them panic into some very questionable  decisions.

One striking element of the story is the sort of butterfly effect we see here in terms of taking action and how the ripple effects can ruin pretty much everything for everyone. Bad choices cost and often times, when dealing with sort of people that we see in the movie, the cost isn’t just on a personal level for the person who makes them. Should Driver have gotten involved? If he hadn’t, had he let things play out, then things would have turned out a lot differently for a lot of people. Your typical action movie does not make you ask these questions. Drive does and it does so in a hauntingly effective way.

That being said, the movie takes its time getting where it is going. There are more than a few long drawn out moments set to 80s synth pop where Driver is staring into the middle distance apparently taking stock of his life. There are other long shots of Driver, Irene and her son hanging out and doing fun things. These moments are nice in their way and if you aren’t expecting a high-octane thriller they set up what is coming quite nicely. That is one of the things that makes the violence that happens so intense when it breaks out because you are lulled into a false sense of security. That the resultant gore is extreme helps quite a bit too.

The performances are very good from very talented cast. Ryan Gossling does a good job of the stoic Steve McQueen type hero and he handles the violence realistically. Carey Mulligan plays Irene as understated and a bit sad but you understand right away, through her performance, Driver would fall for her and disrupt his whole life to help her. Ron Perlman is great as always as low level mob operator, Nino and Bryan Cranston does an equally impressive job as the broken down but eternally hopeful Shannon.

Albert Brooks, however, is the real standout and trades on his normal nice guy persona to make dramatic turns as a truly hardcore and evil bastard. If there isn’t an Oscar nomination anywhere for Brooks then there is really no justice in Hollywood. Brooks is a revelation here and honestly I would love to see Brooks do more work in this direction.

Conclusion [9.0 out of 10]

Driver is not for everyone and there are people who will find it cold and inaccessible or plodding and boring. I personally think those people are crazy but tastes vary. For people who can plug into a thoughtful and artistic film with the patience to take its time getting where it needs to go then you are in for a treat. The performances are awesome and the violence is disturbing and intense. Not a whole lot of driving though, just as a heads up.