A mysterious Hollywood stuntman, mechanic and getaway driver lands himself in trouble when he helps out his neighbour. IMDB.com
Last night I went to see Drive at the student union, which was being shown by the student film unit. I'm not sure how I missed this when it was first out in the cinema, or how I haven't bought it on DVD already. My tweet sums up what I think of this film:
Drive: Wow. #whoneeds140charactersforafilmreviewwhenyoucanusethree #longesthashtagever
— Matt Fazakerley (@mfaz) February 24, 2012
The start of the film throws you right into the action and the first five minutes, even before the start credits, was exciting and tense. I thought to myself that if the rest of the film carried on like this then I wouldn't be disappointed. And thankfully I wasn't. This is a film that keeps on giving right until the very end.
It's full of action, drama and a lot of violence. There is a body count of 10 and for each of these you see a lot of blood. But don't let this put you off. I don't usually like gore and blood in films, but it has been done in a way that I was able to watch it all without needing to look away. Also, as the names suggests, there are a lot of driving sequences. But there aren't too many that it dominates the film and there is plenty of other things going on to drive the story forward.
Ryan Gosling, who plays the main character, is brilliant in it. Cleverly, we never find out his actual name and he is only ever referred to as 'Driver' or 'Kid'. Along with his co-star, Carey Mulligan (off of Shame), Gosling reportedly refused to say many of the scripted lines as they felt that their scenes should be more focused on the mood, opting to stare longingly at each other instead. And it works, only enhancing the film further.
I'm glad that I saw this for the first time at the cinema and not on DVD, as the sound editing is a large part of the film. From the sound effects, which includes roaring engine sounds, the ticking of a watch and gun shots, to the clever use of the soundtrack. It all deserves to be in surround sound cinema quality audio. It's been nominated for Best Sound Editing at the Oscars tomorrow, and it definitely deserves to win. I also think it deserves to win Best Picture, but unfortunately it hasn't been nominated in that category.
Drive is definitely one of the best films of 2011, but as it is long gone from the cinema, why not buy Drive on DVD
and watch it with high quality speakers with the sound turned up. You won't be disappointed.Rating = *****
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