MYST 1 "Drive" 2011

Chris Chenery MYST “Drive”

                This was a very interesting film. Ryan Gosling plays a unique role in the fact that he says very few words throughout the film, yet he attains a relationship with a married woman and turns into one of the most violent men I’ve seen in a film in quite some time. Camera wise this was a great film, captures many angles and many styles and one thing I noticed that I absolutely loved was composition in this film. While it was relatively simple, the composition in most of the scenes was fantastic, it held a solid foreground and background but the most important thing was the placement of the main characters in each scene. It was very easy to follow who you should be focusing on yet was rather spontaneous at the same time. Also, great cast, you have Ron Perlman from SOA, Albert Brooks and Bryan Cranston all very well known and respected actors and of course Gosling.

                What I liked about the movie definitely overpowers what I did not. I found the slow increase in violence to be very appealing, I was not looking for a movie such as “Taken” where Gosling takes down a whole gang of thousands. Throughout the film the violence increases, in the intro you have Gosling as the getaway car driver, interesting and exciting but very mellow in the scheme of the rest of the film. Until the bar scene where Gosling swears out and threatens to kill a man who brings up a past heist Gosling really isn’t all that intimidating but the latter half of the movie shows Goslings greatness in this role. He becomes hardcore for lack of a better word, when I finished that film I said to myself “I want to be  as hardcore as that guy.”

                What I didn’t like about the film is short but definitely worth criticizing. Goslings fake smile in place of narrative was very gutsy and in my opinion very strange. I didn’t feel like he was a real person for a lot of the film, it was as if he was so cool it wasn’t even believable. Also, I was not a fan of the stomping of the mans head in the elevator. Gosling stomps a mans head to splatter in front of the girl he loves and for what? The guy was dead and there was no need for that, but I must say it was pretty cool. Lastly, the relationship between him and his girl never was more than a smile, I would have loved to see a happy ending, and I am sure everyone else viewing this was hoping for the same.