I was really rooting for "Drive" but, man, I just didn't like it. It's essentially a hipster action movie: it's quiet, it's sparse, the violence is almost ironically over-the-top, and most people in the mainstream will not like it at all. While many people are heralding the performances, I thought most of them were nothing special. Ryan Gosling gets points for not saying a lot, smiling, and being damn handsome. I honestly wasn't blown away by his performance and thought it was almost too low key and sedate. There was a point in the movie that I felt like I was seeing a horror film from the POV of the killer (which is a cool idea but this film didn't pull it off.) Albert Brooks is good but he's no better than most any noir heavy and I think most of the hype around his performance is that it is Albert Brooks doing a serious role. I don't see any way that he should be nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

The movie was almost comical with the over-the-top violence and muted responses from everyone around it. Maybe that was a choice of some sort but I didn't get it. It's been a while since a critically acclaimed film has fallen with such a thud like this one. I guess my biggest issue is that while I can appreciate a film that is a slow burn, I can't take a film that is cold emotionally and has sparse storytelling. Drive was little more than a genre film made with art house sensibilities. It didn't elevate the genre, it just made a slower moving version of action films. People can say, "They don't make 'em like this anymore" but the fact is that they never made them like this. They were better. If it had come out in the 70s, "Drive" would have been forgotten. Personally, I think it could have been a cool short film or series of web shorts but it felt longer than 100 minutes and I was wholly underwhelmed when it was over.

Looking back, I kind of wish that Carey Mulligan's character didn't like Ryan Gosling's character. If Gosling's going to be creepy, roll with it all the way and make Mulligan not like him (but maybe the kid is intrigued and keeps inviting him into their life.) If Mulligan was really in love with her husband and weirded out by Gosling, it would have added an extra layer that I feel the film needed. Either that or make her slowly realize that Gosling's weird and pull away from him as he falls for her. Their relationship needed a different wrinkle than the typical Quiet Hero/Damsel in Distress approach.

Unless you really like art house fare, I'd stay away from this one. I didn't hate it and it didn't really do anything wrong but it did nothing right, seemed to think a slow pace and hyper-violence were enough of a risk to take, and I never cared about it for an instant. But to end off on a positive note, I did like the soundtrack.