Alex Hiatt
Staff Writer
I was supposed to see and bring you my thoughts on Taylor Lautner’s post-Twilight star vehicle “Abduction.” Although I’m sure I could have entertained y’all with an acid-glazed lampooning, no opportunity to have some fun picking on an easy target is worth the auto-decapitation that “Abduction” would have induced. And, really, there’s no need. No discerning enjoyer of movies needs a review to know that “Abduction” represents the very worst habits of the Hollywood system, that it will come and go, and American popular culture will be worse off for it.
Such thoughts ran through my head as I entered the Cinemark 10 and I decided to see “Drive” instead, which has stylishly careened in from left field to remind us cynics that, while modern mainstream American cinema is generally a hopeless muck-pond of soulless reboots and tepid superhero sequels (and tween heartthrob star vehicles), there are still some high-profile releases worth talking about.
“Drive” doesn’t look or move or feel like the movie one might expect from reading the following plot synopsis: a Hollywood stuntman by day and freelance getaway-driver by night becomes entangled in a mob war and goes on a bloody rampage when the violence creeps close to home. Could be a cookie-cutter Jason Statham flick, no? But any such preconceptions are refreshingly dispelled as soon as “Drive” begins.
It opens with the flat-out best getaway scene I’ve ever seen. After some arbitrary heist, the protagonist picks up the crooks and proceeds to avoid the police. They spot him, he hides. They spot him again, he hides again. It unfolds matter-of-factly and silently, almost surreally, and the tension escalates perfectly. Just as the heat becomes too much to handle, he drops his criminal clients in a parking garage beneath a packed stadium. Seriously, even Michael Mann in his heyday couldn’t produce a getaway sequence as awesome as the one that opens this movie.
From there, “Drive” continues to impress with its style and restraint. The cinematography is unconventionally flat and wide-focused, resulting in great artful shots rarely found in this sort of movie. The script is also rather minimal, allowing little human moments to work their charm without being rushed.
Then there’s the protagonist, the driver; he’s a mystery wrapped in a riddle, maddeningly intriguing to the very end and yet immediately likable. I’ve never seen Ryan Gosling in anything, but he pulls off moments of stark rage better than any actor I’ve seen in a while.
Though I gush praise, “Drive” is actually far from perfect. I think the plot is arbitrary and convoluted and it all ends up feeling a tad insubstantial. And while the movie puts a big thematic and stylistic emphasis on violence, none of it has the impact achieved in films such as “Taxi Driver” and “A History of Violence.” Nonetheless, “Drive” deserves a hearty recommendation for its unique and sure-handed rewriting of genre rules. It truly does its own thing, and in an era in which movies like “Abduction” will earn more than “Drive” at the box-office, that’s worth a lot.