As a film critic I’m sometimes troubled after seeing a movie I personally find to be great.  There’s always the concern that others will think I’m crazy, or not pick up on things I did while seeing the same flick.  In the case of DRIVE, the new Ryan Gosling crime noir film by acclaimed director Nicolas Winding Refn, I’m particularly curious as to whether or not the average moviegoer will even come close to agreeing with me.  Why, you ask?  Because I happen to think it’s one of the best films of 2011.

DRIVE is the story of a young man in L.A. (Gosling, simply credited as “Driver”) who works part time as a stunt driver for action movies, part time as a car mechanic, and spends his off time behind the wheel of various robberies and heists.  Driver lives by a strict code, doesn’t carry a gun or participate in the criminal acts… just waits patiently for things to go down, and drives the key players away from the scene.  His middle man employer is a fella named Shannon (Bryan Cranston), mildly crippled from an unfortunate past, using a car repair shop as a front for any criminal activity the two get themselves mixed up with.  Shannon gives Driver his gigs, and supplies him with internally tuned-up vehicles that from the outside won’t arouse suspicion.  Driver meets and gets to know his down-the-hall neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her son Benecio (Kaden Leos) rather by accident, and is almost immediately taken with them.  While he finds himself getting closer with the humble mother and son, he also learns her husband is about to come home from prison.  At the same time Shannon has concocted a plan to use Driver with a stock car as a means to give himself a leg up.  In order for this to happen, Shannon must borrow money from his crime boss buddy Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) and his partner Nino (Ron Perlman) – meaning both Shannon and Driver would now be answering directly to the bad guys in their effort to get ahead.  When Irene’s husband Standard (Oscar Isaac) in reunited with his family, it isn’t long before men he owes money to come looking for him, and Driver becomes aware that the ex-prisoner’s return home may be putting Irene and Benecio in extreme danger.  In an effort to protect those he cares about, our hero decides to help Standard pull off a job to settle the debt.  But when things go bad, Driver soon realizes he’s going to have to break his own disconnected code in order to keep the situation from getting even worse.

There’s a serious problem with the marketing for DRIVE in that the trailers and TV spots are making this look like an exciting action movie, perhaps even in the same vein as movies like THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS or THE TRANSPORTER.  It’s actually nothing like those films, but rather akin to classic crime thrillers like BULLITT or TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A., or perhaps even Michael Mann’s THIEF.  Rather than snappy or intense back and forth dialogue, there are sometimes awkward scenes of long looks and dramatic pauses between central characters.  The role of Driver is a quiet one, cold and calculating but never scary… at least not at first.  Ryan Gosling goes with the philosophy of “less is more” with his performance, showing at times a soft side to our hero, but never afraid to take things to frightening extremes as the moment spins out of control.  His character is perhaps the most simple and yet the most layered.  Director Nicolas Winding Refn (BRONSON) chooses to not show or tell us much if anything about his protagonist’s past, but rather keep him mysterious, and it works well.

Carey Mulligan plays the simplistic Irene, a woman who works hard and wants the best for her son, but obviously has a hard time living day to day.  There’s an innocence in her eyes and warmth in her smile, but a sadness in her soul over the life she’s forced to live.  Her unexpected relationship with Driver is a welcome and needed thing, and couldn’t possibly have come at a worse time.  Bryan Cranston is immensely likable as Shannon, the bad luck magnet who has obviously put all of his hopes and dreams into his younger protege, but most likely knows from his own past that things will never be much better than they are currently.  It’s a small but effective role.  Albert Brooks pretty much steals every scene he’s in as the story’s villain, playing amazingly well against type and bringing an unexpected humanity to his ruthlessly determined character.  It’s an incredibly admirable performance from a man we’re so used to laughing with, and it works like a charm.  Ron Perlman is also great as the less-professional but equally dangerous Nino, Bernie’s business partner who was never content with his own criminal status.  Oscar Isaac does a fine job showing up late in the game as Irene’s husband, fresh out of prison but never far away from trouble.  He’s charming enough for us to see how Irene could end up with him, but self-destructive enough for us to understand why he’s such a screw-up.  MAD MEN‘s Christina Hendricks has a small role as a gangster moll assisting in a robbery, and while she doesn’t have much to say she’s rather convincing in the all-too-brief part.

The movie is based on the book by James Sallis, and Refn gives the story a gritty visual flare that knows when to be beautiful and heartwarming, then shocks us with unexpected moments of extreme violence.  While this isn’t necessarily a gory movie, the few scenes of carnage are rather rough and cringeworthy.  I look at it as Refn reminding us periodically that this is a “crime” movie, and while there are elements of romance and action, people involved with criminal activity can face some pretty ugly moments in between.  Another impressive aspect of the film is its inspired almost retro-styled soundtrack, featuring 80’s sounding songs from Kavinsky and College (featuring Electric Youth), all complemented superbly with an atmospheric score by Cliff Martinez.  The soundtrack will likely gain strong popularity, and with good reason.

While DRIVE may not be as exciting something like FAST FIVE, or filled with explosions and car crashes, it makes the most of what it has and shows audiences something unique and thought-provoking.  I actually saw it twice before writing my review, and enjoyed it even more the second time.  So, here I am ending a review by saying this is in my top 10 of the year, and nervous in the fact that I know there will be (and judging by message boards, there already are) many who don’t come close to seeing the genius I saw on that big screen.  When I spoke to Nic Refn after my first viewing, I told him in some ways this made me think I was watching some really great long-lost film on cable I had never heard of.  The nostalgic aspects of it are apparent, and I think it’s one of the many reasons I loved it so much… the other reasons are all in there, and I genuinely hope you get a chance to see them.

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