Set in the night scape of Los Angeles, we meet a driver. He helps some men get away from a robbery, and in this one scene you meet the unnamed man. He's fast. Careful. Smart. Quiet.
Dangerous?
We don't know much about him, and this lends itself to never knowing what type of choices he will make in this story. He's unpredictable and that's what, dare I say, drives the story.
(SPOILERS)
Our unnamed protagonist (hereby referred to as Driver) played by Ryan Gosling is just another guy; stunt driver and mechanic by day, get away driver by night. His apartment is mostly empty, and he doesn't seem to have any family or friends. His only real human connection appears to be his boss Shannon (Bryan Cranston), but they don't seem to have the best relationship. But who am I to judge, he really have anyone else.
We see Driver meet his neighbor, Irene (Carey Mulligan), and her son, Benicio (Kaden Leos). He quickly develops a connection with them and helps Irene out while her car is being fixed. The sexual tension between these two characters is thick and uncomfortable at times. Especially when we find out that Irene's husband, Standard (Oscar Isaac), is in jail.
While Irene and Driver are spending all this time together, it seems pretty certain that they are going to make out as some point. That is until Standard is out of jail, and back into Irene's life.
It is unclear at first why Standard was in jail, but he makes it very clear he regrets whatever it was. Along with this, he is also very suspicious of Irene and Driver's involvement. Which I would have been too if I caught them giving each other sexy eyes for five minutes straight.
So up until this point, the plot moves slowly. We learn nothing more about Driver, except that he has a thing for Irene, and seems to care about her son. There is also an opportunity for him to drive, but for a rich man. I don't see that as learning more about him though, it just solidifies that he drives well.
Soon the people that were keeping Standard safe in jail have come to collect, and they do that by beating the heck out of him in front of his son. Driver finds him in the parking lot of their apartment and takes him inside to get cleaned up, and this is where we find out Irene and Benicio are also in trouble now. Unless Standard does one last job for the bad guys, the whole family is in danger.
Driver approaches Standard and tells him to do the job, which is a pawn shop robbery, so he is able to keep his family safe. He offers to drive for him, and help him out. His kindness to Standard is not for his own sake, but for the sake of Irene and Benicio; this seems to be the closest thing he has to a family of his own.
I'm not going to get into details about the action scenes, as they often lose my attention and I won't be able to recount it properly. What you need to know is: the robbery goes wrong and Standard dies. Yes, he is shot and killed only a few steps away from the pawn shop front door. This raises the stakes in such a complicated and intense way, it is difficult to predict the rest of the movie. Here's my take:
Let's talk about Driver. So far we don't know much about him. No history except he moved to L.A. and started working as a mechanic. We don't know anything about his family, friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, any human relationships. He doesn't have many lines really, and often times when he talks to Irene he acts like a young boy. I'm not sure if that was a character choice, or just the Gosling charm.
He has no hobbies, other than fixing cars and driving them. He seems intelligent and has good critical thinking skills. He takes to the broken family of Irene and her son very quickly, and seems to care a great deal about them. There is one conversation with Benicio while they are watching cartoons, and the dialogue gives a bit more insight into this character:
Driver: Is he a bad guy?
Benicio: Yeah.
Driver: How can you tell?
Benicio: Because he's a shark.
Driver: There's no good sharks?
I believe this shows the narrow line that Driver is constantly on. Is he a bad guy just because he does bad things? Is there no way for him to be something else? Can he be a good shark?
These were all of my feelings until the last half of the film, beginning with Standards death, until the story ultimately spiraled into chaos. Not knowing what Driver would chose to do next heightened the story line and brought real suspense, making it known that we do not know this character.
While on the run from the cops and who ever was responsible for Standards death, Driver has all of the money and the woman who was supposed to play the distraction. He threatens to hurt her if she doesn't cooperate.
That ends up not happening, because she is shot when two men break into the motel room they were hiding out in. Driver kills both of them, emerging like Patrick Bateman in American Psycho.
After this incident, Driver goes on a surprisingly violent quest to return the money to whoever it belongs to now.
He considers giving it to Irene, and even tried to at one point. But their relationship is complicated and this doesn't work. After this exchange between the two of them, he surprise kisses her and then proceeds to kick someones face to death right in front of her. They don't speak again.
After going through an exhausting amount of time trying to meet up and return this money, he ends up sitting at the same table Bernie (Albert Brooks), who happens to be the rich man he was supposed to drive for. At this point he has killed/injured A LOT of people. He is literally a serial killer at this point in time. Driver's boss has also died because of him, but not directly by his hands. Driver is completely alone and just wants to get this money off his hands.
The ending scene shows us the most curious action we have seen by Driver yet, and leaves many questions. He goes out to the car, eager and willing to hand the money over to Bernie. They have an old fashioned staby-stab, and each critically injure the other. We pause on Driver, who ends up back in the driver seat of his car. We pause on him for a long time. Is he dead? Are the cops going to find two dead dudes by a car with a duffel bag full of money?
Nope.
Miraculously, Driver is able to turn on his car and successfully get away. Not really sure if he dies while driving, that is left pretty vague. But it like to think he did; he would have died doing what he loved.
Now, the interesting thing this film wants us to know at the end is Driver did not take the money. He left it there with dead Bernie. That leads to my first question: Why?
Why does this character not want this money so badly? He is literally killing people in order to give this money back. This is a question because generally, people WANT money. They kill FOR money. If money is not a motivator for Driver, then what is?
The other question this leads to is: What was his past life? Is he a psychopath, and is that why he is alone? It seems very clear he is not great at social situations, and perhaps that is why he doesn't have many relationships. But he's also pretty content with killing and injuring many people, so that could also be a problem.
My main question though, is why does this character not have a name? This film goes through a lot of trouble to never give him a name. It honestly would have been easier if he did have a name. So why leave the mystery?
The ambiguous tone this character takes can make him hard to predict, but also hard to understand. I hesitate to describe him this way, but he seems somewhat...simple. Only one hobby, only one motivation. On the flip side of this, he could also be extremely complex.
MY THEORY: Driver does not have a name because he is not a real person. Meaning, he no longer has a true identity. Or perhaps he never did. It is very easy to show up in a big city such as Los Angeles and get lost in the crowd. He does odd jobs under the table, such as being a getaway driver, and makes a living pretty easily. His life is set up for him to be able to skip out at any point. I think if we did know his name, it wouldn't be his name, just a fake name used until it's time for him to move on.
Drive tells a somewhat convoluted story about a man who risks it all for a woman and child unrelated to him. This film is emotional and thrilling, but it really makes you work for it. Ryan Gosling did a great job, but I personally feel he didn't play mysterious very well, and blame the writing for telling this story well.
Rating: 5/10
This movie is available on Netflix. All photos are courtesy of IMDB.
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