Nicolas Winding Refn’s latest film Drive, is a violent fairy tale, set on the surreally tinted night time streets of LA, that follows a stunt driving James Dean look-a-like (Ryan Gosling ) as he attempts to rescue a tragically single-mom/waitress (Carey Mulligan) from a series of mobster clichés and recognizable TV actors. After which ensues a series of operatically shot splatter fest confrontations between the lone driver and his video game quality enemies. 

Drive, is journey of tone and ambiance that’s not meant to be interpreted literally and (despite its title) features very few car chases and almost no exploration of the nature of incentive. Gosling’s nameless character looks like a hipster version of James Dean, talks like Marlin Brando, and wears a pensive look quite of intelligence popularized by Steve McQueen. No information about his past or his identity are established, other than what can be gathered from his surgical accuracy while driving and his penchant for ultra-violence. The only indication given for most of his actions in the film is the a really unconvincing relationship briefly shared between the driver and Mulligan‘s waitress character, who (of course) has no distinguishing qualities besides being sublimely attractive and in a state of distress. This absences of identity as an identity makes Gosling’s presence in the film less that of a character and more that of an intentionally hollow collection of easily recognizable character traits. Through this aspect of the Gosling’s presence in the film director Winding Refn self consciously keeps Drive, free of any realism or social relevance and in doing so aims to comment on the driving film genre itself. This choice of style over substance works for the film in some astonishing ways. Gosling’s ultra cool veneer never looks shinier then when he is chewing an unlit match from the outside of a bank robbery he’s assisting in, one that’s taken just a few seconds too long. In other ways the intentionally staged aesthetic of Drive, works against the film. The over emphasis on the characters appearances and total lack of character development eventually makes Drive’s, narrative seem sort of like a warped version of what the film Taxi Driver, would be like if its sociopathic main character Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) weren’t a Vietnam vet returning to a near post-apocalyptic version of 1976 New York, but were instead just someone who is randomly gifted at driving and happen to live in contemporary LA. 

Also, Drive, is also unusually populated with cameos made by interesting TV actors such as Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston and Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks. Both of whom are featured giving really predictable one note performances for the total of two to three minutes of screen time they each occupy. Though each actor's brief appearance effectively severs to further color the Winding Refn’s artificial world, I’d be lying if I didn’t feel a little cheated that such gifted performers didn’t each have slight more to do with the film’s narrative. 

All in all I was expecting more from the director/co-writer of the 2008 film Bronson. While I was not blown away by Drive, Winding Refn’s continued infatuation with hyper masculine characters, expressionistic violence, dreamy settings, and frequent use of stunning cinematography have ensured that I’ll likely continue to see anything he produces. Given that Drive, is the Danish independent filmmakers first foray into relatively mainstream Hollywood filmmaking it doesn’t surprise me that he has created a story so concerned with synthetics as well as perhaps missed the mark a bit in terms of delivering a film that aim for genre transcendence but only achieves offering visually interesting movie experience.  I expect that Drive, will eventually be remembered as the stepping stone between Winding Refn’s small-scale early works and more large –scale later works. We’ll see.