Drive (2011)

Moving right along in the A-to-Z watch through with the letter “D” this week. This week I had a list of five options that would be a first-time watch. At the end of the day, correcting another blind spot of mine won out. This time we correct a Ryan Gosling blind spot with Drive (2011).

Title: Drive

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Released: September 16, 2011

Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes

Available to stream on: Tubi

IMDb synopsis: A mysterious Hollywood action film stuntman gets in trouble with gangsters when he tries to help his neighbor’s husband rob a pawn shop while serving as his getaway driver.

Driver (Ryan Gosling) is an action film stuntman and garage mechanic by day and a wheelman by night. When he’s your wheelman, the rules are simple. He doesn’t help plan it, he doesn’t carry a gun, all he does is drive. Oh, and you’ve got exactly five minutes. As long as you are back in the car within five minutes, he guarantees you a safe getaway.

During the day, as a mechanic, Driver works for his mentor, Shannon (Bryan Cranston), who also helps to provide Driver with the cars he uses as a wheelman. Shannon is trying to secure an investment into a race car that he wants Driver to drive. He finds an investor in former movie producer/gangster Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) to the tune of $300,000. Unbeknownst to him, Driver is now in business with both Bernie Rose and Bernie’s “business” partner Nino (Ron Perlman).

As you would imagine, Driver needs to live a life that avoids drawing attention to himself. He accomplishes this by living in an average apartment complex down the hall from Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her son Benicio. After helping her out in a grocery store parking lot when her car breaks down, Irene invites him in for a glass of water. While in her apartment, Driver learns that Irene’s husband (and father to Benicio) is in prison and she’s raising Benicio as a single mother.

Over time Driver develops a bond with Benicio and falls for Irene. But wouldn’t you know it, just as things seem to be going well Irene gets a call informing her that her husband will be released from prison in a week. When he is released, Standard (Oscar Isaac) comes home and seems to be a changed man. However, one day Driver finds Standard beaten to a pulp in the garage of the apartment complex and Benicio hiding behind a column.

Driver gets Standard to admit to what really was behind the attack. The crew that Standard used to run with provided him with protection on the inside. Now the time for payback has come and that payback is a daytime robbery of a pawn shop where the payday is $40,000. The beat down he received was a result of him refusing to participate. In addition to the beat down, Irene and Benicio’s safety was also called into question if Standard still refused to do the heist.

Driver, not wanting to see anything happen to Irene or Benicio, agrees to be the wheelman for the heist. Cook, Standard’s former boss, also insists that Blanche (Christina Hendricks) go along as part of the team. On the day of the heist, everything seems to be going as planned. Standard and Blanche enter the pawn shop and after a few minutes Blanche exits and returns to the car. But then, as Standard exits and puts away his gun the shop owner comes out and start firing his own gun, killing Standard.

Driver, doing what he does best, gets himself and Blanche to safety in a hotel. While here, he realizes that they don’t have $40,000 in their possession, they have $1,000,000. After a physical altercation, Blanche admits that the pawn shop was a set-up, and she was in on it with Cook. While she is in the bathroom, Blanche’s phone, still on the bed, begins to vibrate. Driver realizes the location has been made but before he can act, a hitman fires into the bathroom completely erasing Blanche’s face. Driver manages to kill both hitmen and escape. From this point on, he doesn’t care about the money. Driver’s sole purpose is to take out who set him up while guaranteeing the safety of Irene and Benicio. While Driver doesn’t use a gun, he never said he wasn’t violent…

With a cast that contains the likes of Gosling, Mulligan, Cranston, Perlman, Brooks, Isaac, and Hendricks I was not expecting to be so underwhelmed. Nobody turns in a poor performance, by any means at all. Unfortunately, we’re given surface level introductions to each character, and it never goes further than that. We, as the audience, aren’t given enough to ever feel invested in anyone’s outcome.

The music used is definitely unique. At first it seems out of place, and there are times where it’s distracting and takes you out of the scene. But by the time the end credits roll, the electro/retro music is just quirky enough to somehow work.

If there is one thing that Drive (2011) gets right, it’s the cinematography courtesy of Newton Thomas Sigel. Yes, there are some scenes where it’s obvious someone is a fan of Thief, and they are beautiful. We are also treated to a few great tracking shots. But it’s the use of light, dark, and shadows that help to elevate Drive. Driver’s happiest moments with Irene and Benicio are brightly lit in the California sun. We see Bernie’s scenes get progressively darker as the film unfolds. Somewhere in the middle is Driver, living in the shadows and straddling both light and dark.

For only being an hour and forty minutes, Drive (2011) feels much longer. The first hour feels like they were short on story, so they came up with a bunch of fluff to pad the runtime. However, the final forty minutes really pick up the pace, specifically when Blanche meets her demise. No, it doesn’t come close to the final act of Commando, but the violence is gratuitous enough to help get the audience to stick around for the sprint to the finish line.

Overall, I came away slightly disappointed. Normally I’m not one to advocate for a movie being longer, but in this case using time to further develop characters would have worked to Drive‘s benefit. It’s not one that I’ll go out of my way to watch again, but it’s definitely worth checking out when you can stream it.

So, what do you think? What are your thoughts on Drive (2011)? Let me know in the comments below or by following me across social media.

By now, you know the drill. Next up is the letter “E”, so if you have any suggestions, get them in by Tuesday evening. Wednesday evening the movie for “E” will be announced along with where you can stream it.

Until then, if you’re debating on watching a movie or show, just remember…Everything deserves at least one viewing.