Drive

Oddly, just the other week we had Colombiana, which was a virtual remake of Leon. And films do tend to travel in packs. And so here's another, not a remake by any means, not at all, but more a spiritual successor. Ryan Gosling is a driver (that's his identity, he's not referred to as anything but "the driver" or "the kid" throughout the film.) He is, like Leon, an apparent innocent in all ways, but one specific, savant like area. Where Leon was apparently the perfect killer, this guy is the perfect driver. He does getaway driving, he does stunt work for films, there's some suggestion of him getting into racing; he drives, that's what he does, that's who he is. In all other contexts, pretty much, he quietly sits, with a faint smile on his face, apparently taking in the world, but not being of it.

Things begin to go wrong for him, as they did for Leon, when he meets a girl, in this case Carey Mulligan, who lives down the hall from him, who is herself a sweet, quiet girl, bringing up her son while her husband is in jail; he befriends her, and there's an air of innocent romance about them. Her husband finally gets out of jail, and soon he's in trouble; he must commit a robbery in order to pay back debts incurred in jail, and his wife and child will pay the price if he doesn't. The Driver won't have this, so resolves to help him. And then things really go south, as betrayal layers upon betrayal, and the driver must overcome his naivety in order to extricate everyone from the mess.

It's a beautiful, stylish film. Where you would expect this to be a rowdy film about car chases, this is no Tony Scott movie. There's a sense of the culture of the car in the US (and LA in particular) as we see the night cityscapes as the cars move through them. There's moments of quiet and stillness, which are contemplative, and moments of extreme violence which rise up out of nowhere, to great, jarring effect.

So, that, in a nutshell is it. A stylish, highly stylisised crime thriller, with a great poetic sensibility.