Rating of
1.5/4
"Drive" by Amanda
symp4thedevil - wrote on 09/13/12
Easily one of 2011's most overrated films. Is it because the approach is different? God awful 80's pop techno soundtrack accompanies a simple, surface based character drama. Its complexity is only in its photography...driving at night, diving helicopters and cop cars in pursuit of our driver.
Cops are after our silent protaganist because why? He does side jobs using his driving skill to make ends meet it seems. He is attracted to his lonely next door neighbor, and from this shallow relationship which never goes deeper than her reaching for his hand, the film leads into a circle of events that just begs a question...why? Why is our silent protagonist so attached to a family that he doesn't know? Why does he risk his life to save them?
While the story only goes skin deep, it is really just Ryan Gosling's silent performance and a lot of noise that make this picture what it is: something trying to be complex in a simple indie stylistic format. All it looks like is something it so desperately wants to be: a cult classic. It is begging for attention it doesn't deserve. It's as though the writer and director met, conjured up what they thought was artsy, and threw it all together. "Films are smart when there is little dialogue... and a soundtrack that feels retro...and grotesque violence." But the viewer asks "where's the motive?"
The film is all show and no substance. If there was actual character development and a deeper relationship between the characters...there would have been a more clear motive as to why the protagonist would do what he does.
