Drive

This one is a very tricky one to review. Because once you have seen Drive you will know that there can be only two kinds of people. Those who loved Drive OR those who hated Drive. There can be no in-betweeners. Now one can argue for the sake of arguing that s/he found it OK but that would probably a giveaway for the seasoned movie watcher that actually, you have probably not seen the movie.

And if you find it difficult to believe what I am saying, you need to put yourself upto watching Drive. And don’t worry. It will not be too much of a risk that you will take. Because if you come from the latter group of people, you would just walk out of the hall without batting an eyelid. The first few minutes have very little spoken word – in fact that’s how the rest of the movie is as well.

I am going to go out on a limb and question why Drive was not nominated for a screenplay Oscar this year. You had the likes of Ides of March which I thought was one of THE most over rated movies last year. But the striking effort of Hossein Amini (screenplay) to convert James Sallis’ 2005 novel to the screen has been overlooked by many. It is an art to just say what is required and leave the rest to imagination and Amini (Shanghai) does just that. I thought this was the best aspect.

And then there is the courage that Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn gets to the table in terms of going ahead with the screenplay. The courage to make the right cuts. The courage to leave a lot unsaid and give the audience credit for its intelligence – much as the world is moving towards spoon feeding. I thought Refn did a fabuous job and would have been in the running for a nomination. BAFTA acknowledged it, the Academy didn’t. Tough luck for Refn.

And why the academy thought that Drive was not good enough to make the top 10 for last year can make it to Reader’s Digest’s “Mysteries of the Unexplained” easily. Firstly, they had only 9 nominations and Drive could easily have been the 10th. More importantly, they had Terence Malik’s Tree of Life that made it to the top 9 and Drive didn’t. Weird I tell. But then, I am no one to comment on why Tree of Life made it. Maybe there was a subtle, higher than life message that I missed.

Closing off with remarks on how Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan who were amazing in the lead. Gosling has definitely come of age over the past year of two. And Mulligan could have easily pipped Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) for a nomination. You may or may not like Drive as I pointed out earlier but my verdict would still stand @ 8 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2772212761/