What I Watched -- Drive

T and I watched Drive while putzing around at home one night.  I liked it; he did not.  But this is my blog, so:

This movie is an odd mash-up of things.  The cars are new, but it has a distinctly 1980s feel to it - pink script and Europop.  It's an action movie with fast driving and cringe-worthy violence, but many scenes in the film are nearly silent or at least devoid of dialogue.  Ryan Gosling plays a man known only as Driver, a film stuntman by day and getaway driver by night.  Despite the breakneck speeds and grisly scenes in which he finds himself, he's so very still and controlled all the time.  There's a sense of loneliness about it, but also it makes you wonder what he's up to.  (T thought it was bad acting.  I disagree.)

Carey Mulligan , whom I've liked ever since An Education (and I'm sure I'll like Never Let Me Go when I get around to it), seems like an odd choice as his neighbor.  She just seems too adorable and honest to be married to a man who's locked up when we meet her.  Nonetheless she and Gosling are good together, in an odd couple sort of way.

Also has excellent turns by Christina Hendricks and Albert Brooks, among others.

Bottom line: the volume of violence is lower than Kill Bill, but it's just as nasty and a little bit less pseudo-comically Japanese anime style.  If you can stomach that, it's worth it.

Also, on this version of the movie cover, is it just me or does Ryan Gosling look a lot like longer-haired Daniel Craig?