From: Andy
Message:
With a title like 'Drive' youd think, wow, fast-moving fast-edited
rollercoaster eyecandy like that bit from The Rock where our semi-bald
hero is chasing the white-haired Scot through the san francisco streets,
through a lorryload of bottled product-placement water, then nicking
some stoner's bike after he, like whoa dude, you just totalled your
ferrari and baldy - gruffly: it wasnt mine, then: zoooooooom and cue the
emoshunal reunion with the shcot's only living shpaawwn...
but no! Drive isnt like that. and for the first 5 minutes i was very confused.
There's a guy. He suffers from migraines. Right, yeah, ive got that. And
he leaves the doctor's place where he's had the brain scan, and we know
he's lucky not to have a tumour, and the doc's taught him some
stress-relieving exercises and he's sitting in his car watching a
japanese woman accidentally destroy a flower arrangement the florist has
been so patient and kind to sort it out for her, so embarassed she runs
off checking him out (or is she just checking the car out?), when
suddenly 3 masked men strump into his car with menace and guns and
knives and tell him to drive. or: follow that car, the one that speeding
off, comeondriiiive..!
And we're there for a minute or so til our hero-with-a-headache waits
for the lights to change, pops the gear, indicates, and slowly moves
away from the junction. WeeeeahBeeep! Badass japanese traffic zooms past
and drivers lean out of their window calling him a snail which isnt
helping, him now with trespassing badderasses in his car. what's our
hero to do? Turn right! (is what) the criminals demand with white
furious lips, cos thats where the lead car is going. But our hero goes
straight on because to turn right would be against the highway code.
And at this point you think, this isnt what i signed up for. But they
stop off at a restaurant (the other car is now forgotten) and slowly the
story of one of the kidnappers, cos they're not letting our man go,
starts to be revealed. But that story, you think, is coincidental and
unbelievable. But then two more unbelievable somethings happen (and then
more) and you settle into the gentle goodness and playfulness of the film.
Except the driver of the car they were following doesnt have it so
gentle. He was their heist partner whos greedily run off with their bag
or money. He rendezvous (is that the plual of rendezvous?) with his
stashed car, but dopily drops his keys down a hole before he can get to
the car and spends the majority of the film with his arm trapped down
that hole. I thought his fingers were being nibbled by a badger given
the pain on his face, and maybe they were, but that isnt revealed in the
film. I guess it couldve been any type of borrowing animal, or perhaps
no animal at all. Regardless, he's fucked. And whats that weird samurai
doing in the middle of nowhere?
The film rolls on with its own meandering pace visiting the characters
in turn. The acting is, frankly brilliant, especially our hero's aunt
who an absolutely blinding non-stop gabbling manic. There's one
particularly incongruent scene that wraps up the lead heisters story
that might grate for some, but given that that films main theme concerns
fate, and given that the whole film is one fantastical episode after the
other, you kinda dont care.
I didnt care.
