Big Screen Peter: Drive

review by Peter Lewis

From the outset of the opening montage, it’s obvious “Drive” isn’t your run of the mill action movie. It’s not Transporter or some other similar film with a firm jawed good guy protagonist. Well, it has that, but the arc is larger, the scope of the film ventures past your usual explosions and car chases.

It’s a psychological drama with in your face action and a disconcerting level of violence peppered throughout the narrative. It’s Elmore Leonard meets Axel Foley, both highly stylized and darkly brooding.

Based on a novel by Arkansas’ James Sallis, “Drive” is directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, a Dane that is also no stranger to seedy stories. The movie can be seen as a mix between the criminal underworld depicted in Refn’s “Pusher” trilogy and the austere, brooding violence of his more recent film, “Valhalla Rising.”

“Drive” stars Ryan Gosling, a fairly ubiquitous actor these days, having starred in several movies over the past two years. His performance is quite good and, after having starred almost exclusively in dramas, is quite concrete proof of his talents. Early in the film, his lack of response to dialogue makes him seem borderline autistic. It’s a bit disarming, forcing the audience to wonder what exactly is going through his head. Is he really slow? Does he act like this on purpose?

This disconnect is sought by Refn; Gosling’s protagonist is unnamed throughout. He’s just Driver. His personality, his entire animus is just an extension of his skill.

As the film pushes forward, the lag between dialogue and response is shorn somewhat.  Gosling begins to behave a bit more human. He actually talks, he makes a connection with a young mother and child down the hall. There’s a dichotomy here too though, for as much as we see a internal blossoming, a powerful rage is put in stark counterpoint.

We never learn much about his back story. He just appears one day, but there is no doubt the earlier portions of his life were fraught with tragedy. It’s this intuitive understanding of his character that helps give such poignancy to his mad, misguided attempts to stave off the impending darkness of reality.

As the film reaches its climax, Driver has become a modern Orestes. Though his actions were born from an overriding sense of responsibility and not revenge, he is still beset by his own Furies while trying to stay ahead of a perilous situation. No matter the origins or motives, blood begets blood. And Refn’s movie takes this Atreusian concept to heart as the cycle spins and spins.

We don’t know why there is so much rage beneath that pristine surface, just that driving is the escape.  Behind the wheel he faces both an Athenian judgment and salvation.

• Drive is playing at the Carmike 14 and the Malco Cinema 12 in Fort Smith. Link here for time and ticket info.

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