Review of DRIVE

What with rehearsals and all, I haven’t had much time lately to see any movies, but yesterday I went to see DRIVE,  a really violent, brutal movie with several scenes where I had to turn away from the screen.  It is bloody.  At the same time, for an action movie, it is very slow moving.  There were a lot of scenes where the camera just lingered on a face for what seemed an endless time for no apparent rreason.  Also, what story there is, is pretty convoluted.  Ryan Gosling, in what seems his seventh movie in five weeks, stars as a “driver,” who stunt drives for movies during the daay, then serves as a wheel man for a couple of hold up men at night.  Along the way he meets a cute girl with an 8 year son (how often has that been in a movie) who turns his life around.  The ending is very ambiguous, so you can make it to be whatever you want.  From the way it was advertised, I thought there would be more exciting car chases – there weren’t, but there was a lot of bloody violence as Gosling gets involved with some horrific killers who wind up trying to kill him.  It’s a well-made movie, and the cinematography is excellent, including some great shots of Los Angeles at night.  It’s tightly edited, the acting is good, but it’s pretty ugly.  I’ve been all over the place trying to rate it, and while I can’t recommend it – in addition to the violence, every other word is the F word – I still give it a 5.8.