"Drive"

The more I think about this movie, the more I really like it. One of the driving forces in me enjoying this movie is Ryan Goslings performance as the stoic and introverted Driver. His performance is reminiscent of Orlando Bloom in "Kingdom of Heaven" except substantially better. I understand how some people can look at these performances as hollow, but they are both meant to be reserved characters with little emotion. The biggest difference is that Ryan Gosling has greater emotion behind his stoic exterior, not to mention he wears the sweetest white jacket with a gold embroidered scorpion I've ever seen. The movie itself has two diametrically opposed halves which works great for me. The first part is a slow, yet rhythmically paced introduction to these characters, their lives, and the bonds they begin to form. The director does great in building these relationships with little more than the imagery on the screen, using little dialogue. Ryan Gosling does have a short opening monologue at the very beginning of the film, but after that his next line in the movie is 17 minutes into it. 17 whole minutes yet you still know, understand, and feel! Then about halfway through the movie the excrement makes physical contact with a hydro-electric powered oscillating air current distribution device and you are thrown into this intense sequence throughout the rest of the film. This half is just as powerful in it's imagery with little dialogue needed. Throughout this entire film, you have the emotional, yet near mute, performance of Ryan Gosling which is truly fantastic. The other acting performances turned in are solid and the driving sequences are enjoyable. Two final points of order. First, in the second half of the movie, there is a lot of violence. A lot of graphic violence. A lot of gratuitous graphic violence. This did take away from the movie a bit for me, simply because I saw it as unnecessary. Second, the music in this movie was incredible. I don't know what to say except that it was unique and had that perfect blend of accentuating the emotion without being distracting. Overall I really enjoyed this film, I'm just sad that the unnecessary graphic nature of it will lead to me re-watching it less.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780504/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1