Drive: "If I Drive For You, You Give Me A Time And A Place"

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Writer:    Hossein Amini
Starring: Ryan Gosling
               Carey Mulligan
               Albert Brooks
               Bryan Cranston
               Oscar Isaac
               Christina Hendricks
               Ron Perlman
               James Biberi
Rating:    ****

Release Date: 23/09/2011
A Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver soon finds himself in a spot of trouble, and the results are outstanding.

A driver (Gosling) works as a stunt driver, but it is soon made evident that he is a skilled getaway driver. The film opens with him helping two burglars evade the police, and then split up at the Staples Centre car park. He has only three rules 1.He works anonymously 2. He never works for the same person twice, and 3. He only gave each person 5 minutes. He also works in Shannon's (Cranston) garage, and Shannon soon takes advantage of the driver's driving skills, by using him in a NASCAR race. 

Shannon goes to Bernie Rose (Brooks) about the plan, and after he witnesses the drivers skills he offers $300,000 to back the plan. Unfortunately Bernie has been involved with mobster Nino (Perlman), and Nino soon sets up a heist which gets everyone in trouble. At first the driver doesn't know who has arranged the heist, but goes on one hell of a journey to find out. Along for part of the journey and of course the love interest of the film is Irene (Mulligan), the drivers neighbour. They slowly start to fall for each other, but then somebody unexpected turns up.

Standard (Isaac) is a fresh-from-prison mobster, and Irene's husband. His arrival puts a spanner in the works for the new relationship, but also adds a whole new issue for the drivers already complicated life. Cook (Biberi) is owed money from Standard, and when he attacks Standard and threatens Irene and their son, the driver gets involved. He offers to help Standard out by robbing a pawn shop to get Cook off of his back. This of course has all been set up by Nino, but the driver doesn't find out till later. It is all to do with mafia money and protecting
themselves.

Also along for the heist is Blanche (Hendricks), a sexy friend of Cook's who knows how she can help. Unfortunately in the end the heist goes wrong resulting in the death of a few characters, and the driver finally goes on to find out the truth about everything. This may all sound extremely confusing, but it genuinely isn't.

The directing is absolutely brilliant, and was an absolute treat to watch. He manages to give the film an incredible vintage, b-movie feel, but yet it still feels incredibly current and fresh. Gosling is absolutely phenomenal and is able to carry the film almost entirely by himself. I found the casting of Mulligan slightly odd, but Hendricks on the other hand was brilliant and inspired. There was a lack of script, but in a good way. The film didn't need lots of speaking and explanation, and the decision to keep it slightly abstract and subtle was superb, both on the directors part, and the writers. It is a terrific watch, and despite it possibly being for a specific taste in cinema, and sounding pretty confusing, I think it is possibly one of the best films of 2011. So go catch it now, while it is still in cinemas.

Drive - Trailer