One of this year's most intriguing movies.
An Illusion Review by Joan Ellis
This is a
director's movie, and Nicolas Winding Refn lets us know what he's up to in short
order. He's after mood and tone - not only of time and place but of character
and personality. His cast understands exactly what he's after, and the result is
a movie of high style and mysterious human dilemma. The brutal, bloody, graphic
violence is integral to this particular story set in the dark underbelly of Los
Angeles crime. If you don't have the stomach for stylized violence pulp fiction
style, then pass it by, but if you do, you'll miss one of this year's most
intriguing and finely crafted movies.
First, the
premise. Ryan Gosling plays a man who drives by day as a stunt man for movies
and by night as a getaway driver for criminals. He also works as a highly
skilled mechanic in a garage run by Shannon (Bryan Cranston). As the story
unfolds, we learn nothing at all about the driver except who he is in a given
moment. As these moments are strung together, we begin to sense decency in this
man who has no name and no backstory. Except why, we wonder, does he drive
getaway for thieves?
The driver
lives a few doors down the hall of a set of seedy apartments from Irene (Carey
Mulligan), a single mother of a beautiful little boy, Benicio (Kaden Leos). Here
comes the love story is what we think, and it does. The couple falls in love in
silence with only their expressions to tell each other - and us - us what is
happening in this subtle love story. As jarring as it seems to see a lovely
young woman in these rundown surroundings, the sight is consistent with the
director's view. He has focused on an idealized couple at the center of urban
brutality, and it is enormously effective.
As the driver
falls completely for both mother and son, all his subsequent actions flow from
his determination to protect them. There will be plenty of need for that. A
husband getting out of jail but in debt to the underworld, various criminals
with scores to settle, vengeance and betrayal among thieves. Credit Albert
Brooks and Ron Perlman with being especially effective at being vicious. And
prepare to be stunned by the driver's intuitive killing skills. Is this who he
is, or is it his only solution to the vulnerability of the two he loves? We are
left to wonder.
From the
opening credits - harsh pink against a black background, to the canvas of
violence, to the breath stopping driving scenes, every gesture is choreographed.
Wounds are inflicted with the moves of a dancer. A bloody jacket becomes a way
to blend into a crowd as does a bland Chevy Impala with a newly installed 300
h.p. engine. Nobody will notice. This movie is all about style. Ryan Gosling is
superb, everything and everyone else merely terrific.
Copyright (c) Illusion