DVD Review - Drive (2011)

Any astrological chart will tell you, don't fuck with a Scorpio. They're intensely loyal, equally vengeful, contemplative and mysterious, and they set personal goals which they go after with unyielding verve. They are deeply sensitive, jealous and obsessive, and they carry a mean self-destructive streak. It seems to be no accident then that the hero in Drive wears a golden scorpion emblazoned across his jacket as he calmly engages in cold acts of sacrificial, calculated violence to protect and avenge the woman he loves. He is Scorpio personified, and woe to anyone who pisses him off.

I bring this up because Nicolas Winding Refn's 2011 film Drive is, above all else, a character study. Yes, there's a brutal story here involving the mafia and criminal exploits and romantic longing, and the film has atmosphere and style to spare, but the element that drives it all forward is Ryan Gosling's mysterious, detached Scorpio.

He is so cool and mysterious, in fact, that we never learn his name. He is Driver and when he's not brooding with his hands in his pockets or chomping on a toothpick he's fixing up cars or speeding around the race track. He also drives getaway for hire, offering his Scorpio tenacity and loyalty to criminals for a fixed rate. In this element, Driver is his own boss, laying out the rules with inflexible conditions and guarantees. Yet he also works for Shannon (Bryan Cranston), both as a mechanic in Shannon's garage and as a Hollywood stunt driver.

If Driver hardly says a word, Shannon can't shut up, and of course this later gets the two of them in big trouble. Shannon manages Driver's stunt gigs while he tries to land Driver a racing career with a fixer-up stock car. Unfortunately, this requires a tricky loan with the local crime boss Bernie (Albert Brooks) and his mad dog of a partner Nino (Ron Perlman).

Meanwhile, Driver catches the eye of his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan), a waitress with a young son and a husband in jail. Driver and Irene spark a romantic friendship full of unspoken passion and buried intensity. He might not show it, but he falls for her hard. And once he does his fate is sealed because he'll do everything he has to to keep her safe when things start to go wrong.

And wrong they go! The deeper Driver gets the more blood he spills. First in self defense and then in defense of Irene. Don't fuck with a Scorpio, indeed.

While the cast is fantastic and the characters riveting, Refn also makes something of a character out of the city itself. Not since Michael Mann's Collateral (2004) has Los Angeles been featured so extensively as a central character in a movie. From the LA River to MacArthur Park, from the Valley to the beach, Los Angeles takes something of a scene stealing role that can't be ignored.

Nicolas Winding Refn (and art director Christopher Tandon) strengthens the movie with the use of a calculated color scheme. Essentially, the entire film plays out within the extremes of cool and calm blues, and warm and passionate reds. Every element of the film (from the sets to the props to the wardrobe to the lighting) is awash in varying shades of these two colors. When Driver is at his most deliberate and calculated he is completely bathed in blue light and as his feelings for Irene deepen he is lit more and more with warm shades of red. Irene wears red to work and on their date, and the supporting cast is almost always wearing one color or the other. (Interestingly, the unpredictable Nino wears purple.) The garage, apartments, hotel rooms and restaurants featured in the movie are all red or blue or both. Even the stock car is red and blue. In this way Refn telegraphs the internal moods that Driver otherwise withholds. As film devices go it works beautifully.

When Driver kisses Irene in the elevator (red) it's as if he knows this is the last moment they have together and he (and the audience) wants to savor it. Moments later, everything changes and when Irene backs away from Driver she does so into a cold, dark parking garage (blue). The elevator scene is probably my single favorite sequence from any movie in 2011.

In fact, Drive is easily one of the best films of the year. Peter Travers named it his #1 movie of 2011 and I'm not sure I disagree.

Refn's deliberate approach to direction is complimented by the pulsating synth score by Cliff Martinez. That score (and the hot pink credits font) caused many a viewer to call this an 80s throwback, but make no mistake, this movie is pure 70s - uncompromising, original, smart, emotional and violent.

The DVD hit shelves January 31st and includes four behind the scenes featurettes and an interview documentary on director Nicolas Winding Refn titled 'Drive Without a Driver'. The Blu-ray also includes UltraViolet, enabling downloading and streaming capability.

9/10