Gosling gets pluses racing in ‘Drive’

Thursday, January 26, 2012 - 03:54 PM

Drive

(Cert 18, 96 mins, Action/Thriller/Romance)

Driver (Ryan Gosling) performs death-defying stunts in big-budget films but when he’s not on a set, he works as a mechanic for his good friend, Shannon (Bryan Cranston).

When he’s not working beneath the bonnet of a car, Driver performs illegal jobs organised by Shannon, which invariably involve high-speed getaways from crime scenes.

When one heist goes wrong, Driver is marked for death at the hands of hoodlums Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) and Nino (Ron Perlman).

There are romantic complications when Driver falls for pretty neighbour Irene (Carey Mulligan), whose husband Standard Gabriel (Oscar Isaac) has just been released from prison and wants to rebuild bridges with his little boy, Benicio (Kaden Leos).

Adapted from the novel by James Sallis, Drive is an adrenaline-fuelled journey into the blackened heart of a man living on the fringes of society.

Director Nicolas Winding Refn hits the accelerator in the opening scenes and barely touches the brakes as the plot skids with sickening inevitability towards its bloody resolution.

The Danish film-maker punctuates Driver and Irene’s doomed romance with scenes of graphic violence, including an assault in a lift that will test the strongest stomachs.

Gosling is mesmerising as the speed freak loner, catalysing smouldering screen chemistry with Mulligan, who can barely hold back the tears as Driver confesses, “Getting to be around you and Benicio was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Brooks and Perlman are terrifying as mobsters, who smile at a rival then stab him in the throat, whispering tenderly, “Don’t worry, there’s no pain. It’s over.”

We certainly don’t want Refn’s film to be over.

Rating: 4/5.