Here is where is this tense, taut drama takes a lurching left-turn into ultra-violence and chaos. But then Irene's man gets out of the joint, still mixed up in rough stuff, and just for Irene's sake, Gosling does one last driving job on his behalf, which of course goes horribly wrong. He is, moreover, joining a legit business, a speed-racing show Shannon is setting up with his mobster buddies Bernie and Nino – terrific performances from Albert Brooks (a rare bad-guy part) and Ron Perlman. She's a single mom with a little boy who likes Gosling: her husband Standard (Oscar Isaac) is an incompetent crook now in jail, and it is evidently Gosling's tough, unspoken decency that keeps this relationship platonic. Gosling's life looks as if it will be turned around when he falls quietly in love with his next-door neighbour Irene, played with dignity and tenderness by Carey Mulligan. The idea is that Gosling's impassive driver gets his Hollywood stunt gigs and maybe also his criminal engagements through a garage owner, a cheerful crook called Shannon (Bryan Cranston) with mob connections. Yet I can't quite join in the widespread critical enthusiasm that has greeted this film, and on the two times I've seen it, I couldn't join in the nervous shrieks of audience laughter that its ultra-violence provokes. Gosling has charisma and presence, although his facial expression is often set to "sardonic". More of that in a moment.ĭrive is a good film with great visual flair, in the style of Elmore Leonard or Quentin Tarantino, and with a little of their natural gruesome gaiety and gallows humour. However, he has one super-special rule that the robbers must agree to, but which makes zero narrative sense. With no fear, he can drive at terrifying speeds with extraordinary manoeuvrability he has a sixth sense for cop cars and police helicopters. Secretly, he also works for scary criminals as a wheelman, a getaway specialist he gets top dollar, because he's the very best. He's a Hollywood stunt driver with a toothpick in the corner of his mouth, wearing a sleek bomber jacket with a scorpion on the back. It arrives here on an eddy of editorial hype there is hardly a male pundit or columnist in Britain under 70 who hasn't declared a simpering man-crush on its star, Ryan Gosling, playing the permafrost-cool hero with no name. As a result, Driven is in an especially difficult spot, considering most moviegoers would probably rather see Refn and Gosling's next unattached variation of Driver - rather than a more "official" follow-up that's missing the director/star pair.N icolas Winding Refn's Drive is an LA pulp thriller, very brutal, very slick. It's unclear at this point how many creative liberties Refn would have in subsequent films - especially since Sallis has previously hinted that a film adaptation of Driven (his direct novel follow-up to Drive) was " in the pipeline." The Driven story is a sequel, so if Refn's recent " never going to happen" comment is to be believed, the director and Gosling are not going to join up for Driven. Of course, Refn could also be playing coy about future Drive installments - given that the film was loosely based on the 2005 novel by James Sallis. That said, mixing up the formula could help position any future Driver installments for success, given that a major strength of Drive was its storytelling flexibility - since the film wasn't tied to a well-known movie brand. Standalone Driver spin-off stories would come as a disappointment to any fans hoping for a return of Carey Mulligan, not to mention a happy-ever-after end for Irene and Driver. However, any future Driver stories would stand on their own - specifically without concern for tying back to the events of Drive (i.e. While a prequel could still be on the table, coupled with his prior comments, Refn seems to be indicating that the filmmakers always envisioned Driver continued on for future adventures - and that the team would be interested in exploring at least one of them. Stranger things have happened…" Around the same time, the director also addressed the film's open-ended finale, claiming that " lives on for more and new adventures."Ĭonsidering Refn's recent hardline denial of future Drive installments is coupled with the vague "idea" of Driver returning in another film - it's likely that the director and Gosling have narrowed down how they'd like to position future installments even if they don't have a concrete story idea yet. Let me just say that I haven’t made up my mind yet. However, eight months back, Refn seemed undecided about the possibility of a potential Drive franchise, stating: " Well, I think that… hmm. But the character of The Driver might return in another film. In an interview with the Evening Standard, Refn confronted the Drive 2 rumors head-on:
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