The film as directed by Nicolas Winding Refn tries to be something it is not. The plot, about a talented Hollywood stuntman who also has a job as a getaway driver, is strong. The first scene demonstrates this potential and is clearly the best in the film. The Driver (Ryan Gosling) has to keep two robbers out of the hands of the police. He employs various ingenious methods to outsmart his pursuers. The entire scene sets up our hero and keeps us on the edge of our seat.
The film appears to be inspired by Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns with Gosling portraying a character like The Man With No Name or Harmonica. But somehow this doesn't work. Unlike Eastwood and Bronson Ryan Gosling has the charisma of two dead fish. His character doesn't come off as a righteous man with a past but more like a deranged sociopath.
In fact many of the film's characters come off as strangely inhuman. They seem so detached that this film would be a perfect sequel to 'The Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. The best and most human performance in 'Drive' comes from Bryan Cranston. He is The Driver's employer; a somewhat miserable cripple with warm feelings for his surrogate son.
Much has been made of the film's silences. Like the performances themselves these feel unnatural and forced. It's as if Refn told the actors to pause for at least five seconds after each line was spoken. Don't get me wrong, silences in films are perfectly fine but they should serve a purpose. The way they are used here is really quite pretentious.
All in all, 'Drive' isn't a good film. It aims too high for its own good making it into an insincere and tedious movie. It's a shame, really, because underneath all the style there is a great flick. 'Drive' could have been a perfect exploitation film if it had just known what it wanted to be. Now, it's nothing more than a wasted opportunity.
Most overrated movie of the year imo
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