Charles Baker
Staff Writer
Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn has so far specialised in portrayals of sparse, obsessive masculinity, notably in Bronson and Valhalla Rising, yet here he has achieved something far more substantial. We follow the unnamed ‘Driver’ through LA , in his dual roles as a film stuntman and as a getaway man for the Angelino underworld . Through his mentor and boss Shannon he comes to be mixed up with unscrupulous Jewish gangsters who threaten the promise of domestic bliss that is slowly developing with his neighbour Irene and her son. Though formulaic in plot, this is far from The Fast and The Furious.
Ryan Gosling, toothpick in mouth and velour jacket over his white vest, plays our hero with a surprisingly broad emotional palette. Indeed, there are more scenes of him chuckling with Irene’s son over TV cartoons then there are of him swerving through the streets on the run from the cops. His love for Irene is of such a formal nature that when her husband returns from prison early he feels it his duty to be his friend, trying to help him honour his debts incurred during his incarceration. Carey Mulligan beat off the cream of young Hollywood starlets to land the plum role of Daisy Buchanan in the upcoming adaptation of The Great Gatsby and the young Londoner is more than at home as a Californian single mother. She portrays Irene as full of serenity and hopefulness, a lifetime’s happiness suggested in a smile. It’s this central relationship that provides the meat round which the film’s stylistic brilliance can shine.
Much has been made of the film’s aesthetics, and one is not disappointed. Cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel gives proceedings a neat elegance that doesn’t dissipate even when the narrative reaches its grisly denouement. The city of Los Angeles is the supporting star, though we are not in the downtown highrises or Malibu beaches so immediately familiar, but rather in the side streets and parking lots. We are in the realm of Pulp Fiction and Heat. The film in this regard is something of a postmodern pastiche, with Miami Vice style opening credits set to French electropop. The violence, so dominant in Winding Refn’s earlier work, is spared for shorter bursts, and is never done for effect a la Tarantino.
There are problems – significant plot holes and underdeveloped characters most importantly, and the ‘Driver’s switch to man of action and vengeance isn’t entirely convincing (I couldn’t help but feel that Michael Fassbender would have been perfect for this role, not to dampen Gosling’s admirable efforts) but this is nevertheless exhilarating cinema, full of lovely little touches that shows a director full of ideas out of the ordinary.
