For the American market this movie will be very polarizing. Either you will love it because it is "different" and has that Euro feel to it or you will hate it because the movie is a very slow burn with spikes of action with very little dialogue.
Movie starts off promising with Driver ( unnamed Ryan Gosling ) hired as a wheel man for a robbery in downtown Los Angeles. His m.o. for any client is they have 5 minutes to do what they need to do and he is all theirs but one minute before or after and he is gone. After whatever job the client is doing is done then Driver will make sure of a successful getaway. You can tell from this opening sequence that he has been doing this for awhile and using unique techniques he gets the job down and literally walks away from the scene after the job is done.
The movie then starts its slow crawl to the credits with only a few spikes in excitement. Driver gets involved with Irene ( Carey Mulligan ) a married woman with a young boy whose husband is locked up but due for release in a week. The courtship of her is very dry and uninteresting. Driver has a day job as well as he is a mechanic with Shannon ( Bryan Cranston ) garage shop with him also doing stunt work on the side. Shannon also has a shady past as he is dealing with local mob bosses.
Standard ( Oscar Isaac, Irene's husband ) gets out of jail and after one day of celebrating is dragged into doing a heist job for repayment of protection money while in prison. Driver insists on helping out so there will be no harm to Irene and her boy, The actual job goes down ok but Standard ends up taking a headful of shotgun shells to the head. After there is a car chase which while well executed is nothing special and really is the last part of excitement in the movie. Driver having figured out he has been double crossed has to work himself up to meeting the mob bosses. Finally he gets on the phone for a little one on one with the boss and they arrange a meeting to exchange the money from the heist. Boss promises that Irene and the boy will not be safe forever but no such promise for Driver. Once the meeting is concluded they end up exchanging knife stabs with Driver end up walking away.
Movie ends with Driver literally driving away at sunset. Credits roll.
Rating : 2/5 - Ryan Gosling is a very good actor whose talent went to waste here and he was the best part of the movie. With his fierce look and unforgiving attitude he pulled off the character with ease. Everything else around him was the problem. Never liked Carey Mulligan and this movie just continues to add to the list of forgettable parts for her. The movie does not pretend to be the typical heist and chase with depth with character movement a la The Italian Job (great movie by the way) so I can't totally hold it against it for what it is. If you go in wanting to watch Ryan Gosling and what he brings to the table you will probably be entertained just enough. If you are looking for an action flick or layers upon layers of depth then you will be highly disappointed.
1 comment:
Can't say that I am surprised. I do love a good action movie, and have seen my fair share of horrible ones, and this held little or no appeal for me. I saw the commercial and at first was interested in it because Ryan Gosling is usually in good movies, then I read what it was about and made a mental note to wait until it is on HBO to watch, if then.
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