Stick Your Foot Down

Long after I should have done, I finally got round to watching Drive last night, the thriller from last year that stars Ryan Gosling as an enigmatic wheel man. Worth the wait? To a degree.

Before that, it's once again a credit to the star that he's taken a less obvious route to artistic credibility despite starting out alongside Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears et al on the Mickey Mouse club. His pretty-boy looks could easily have seem him take the obvious route, so fair play to the guy for doing films like Drive.

Which is, as I'm sure has been said many times already, the kind of film Steve McQueen would have been doing 50 years ago. Gosling's nameless character has that slow, deliberate talking style (plenty of pauses) that Mr Cool himself perfected. Toothpick constantly in gob, there's very few moments we see him react to anything on an emotional level, and most of them seem to suggest some deep-seated anger issues.

So: our man works as a stunt driver and mechanic by day and does getaway driving at night, offering clients a five minute window for his services. Unfortunately, two pieces of bad judgement cause all manner of problems. First, his boss at the garage gets in with gangster Bernie Roses (superbly played by Albert Brooks) to fund a racing team to which the hero will be the star driver.

Secondly, the driver gets involved with his neighbour, the initially-apparent single mother Irene. Only in turns out the wee bairn's dad is doing time, and when he gets out it appears he's in hock to a bunch of heavies. Offering to act as driver for a job to clear the debts and ensure the young family are left alone. Naturally, it all goes South is big style.

Two things surprised me: first, this was a way more gruesome film than I was expecting. People are terminated in spectacularly violent fashion, with close range shotgun blast to head and fork to eyeball being two of the most, umm, memorable.

Also, there actually isn't that much high-speed hi-jinks. There are several scenes of driving round LA, but only two of yer-actual chase scenes. If anything, this is more of a straight crime thriller, which leads to the problem of predictability - it falls into cliche a tad at times.

All the same, Drive looks brilliant. Director Nicolas Winding Refn makes nighttime LA look cool and sleazy, helped by a top soundtrack choc-full of 80s esque electro-pop. Performances are top notch all round - extra credit must go to Gosling for not losing his style despite wearing a ridiculous jacket throughout most the film.

Loses points for not having enough Christina Hendricks, mind.