Review of Drive (2011) by Ben L — 12 Aug 2014

Before I begin I must be forthright with the caveat that I watched this on a cable TV network and I think they sanitized the film somewhat. Although more blood, nudity, or cursing really wouldn't affect my review, I thought you should know I didn't watch the movie as the director intended. That being said, this is a tale of two reviews. Let's start with the one that will sound really positive. When you look at the cinematography, the shot construction, and every little thing that went into the visual look of this movie it was flawless. The car chases were intense and perfectly presented, to the point where I knew exactly what was going on at every moment without the actors uttering one word. Then there was the actors. I thought they performed brilliantly with a lot of emotion, and created characters that I could connect with. They communicated enough through looks and body language that I was never lost despite the sparse dialogue. So everything you are given to look at is amazing, from actors to scenery, so I could easily applaud Drive for being a high-quality production.

The other side of all that positive is the actual nuts-and-bolts of the story. There isn't enough of one! It's an entire movie about a guy who makes the mistake of doing business with the wrong kind of people, but with noble motives. As a result he is forced to either run or fight for his life. This is not an original story, and it hits a lot of predictable beats. I was not excited by the prospect of what was happening to Driver, instead I was constantly waiting for some twist that might make this movie unique and it never came. Also, while I like having a main character who is very soft spoken and a man of few words, it was as if every single actor got the same performance notes. There is so little dialogue and everyone seems to be whispering. In fact the conversation was so limited that there was a couple scenes where I thought the TV was having technical difficulties and had frozen on a still image, but actually the actors were just sitting there in silence before moving on to the next scene. It's almost like the writers created a script for a 30 minute TV show and they needed to stretch it out an hour longer so they just held shots for extra time in order to fill. I was so frustrated with the lack of story because the visuals had me sold and ready to praise this film as a masterpiece. Taking the 2 opposing viewpoints together I think the good outweighs the bad slightly, and I'd be willing to watch Drive again, I just wish it was edited down into a short film or given more plot to keep me engaged.