"Drive:" High-Gear Bloodbath
There are many different ways to kill a man, and some of them are demonstrated quite graphically in "Drive," ranging from slashing with a razor to stabbing with a curtain rod, or some other handy piece of hardware. The only one that did not involve copious amount of blood was drowning.
Ryan Gosling plays an automobile mechanic in Los Angeles who works occasionally as a stunt driver for the movies and moonlights as a getaway driver for stickup men. He guarantees them five minutes of police evasion in a souped-up car, and then they are on their own. But then he discovers Irene, played by Carey Mulligan, who's both lovely and lonely, and he resolves to go straight and start a new life. Their romance develops slowly since Gosling channels his inner Gary Cooper and plays the Driver (no name is ever mentioned) as the strong, silent type. He probably had little trouble learning his lines since there are so few of them.
Things go haywire when Irene's husband is sprung from prison, but his debts follow him and both the husband and the Driver are sucked back into the underworld. Gosling nearly meets his match in another, unseen driver in a doublecross and resolves to get even and protect Irene and her four-year-old son. The bad guys fight back. Weapons include a hammer, a fork, and a kitchen knife as well as the usual pistols and shotguns, operated at close range.
The cast is solid, with Albert Brooks as a sleazy investor in a harebrained scheme hatched by Bryan Cranston as Shannon, who thinks he can use The Driver to break into stock-car racing. Ron Perlman is a hoodlum hiding behind a pizza place instead of the motorcyle club he helps lead in "Sons of Anarchy."
The question is whether the Driver can get out of this mess alive and save Irene, which is, I suppose, a rather old-fashioned gangster movie trope. What sets this film apart is Gosling's steely performance and the producers' heavy investment in fake blood. Don't see it if you're squeamish. I was hiding behind the popcorn.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Catching up on the movies . . .
"The Conspirator," directed by Robert Redford, is a well-made historical drama, respectful of its sources and reasonably acccurate, but lacking in emotional punch and therefore unlikely to transcend the limited audience for history brought to life.
The story centers on Mary Surratt, who owned a Washington, D.C., boardinghouse frequented by John Wilkes Booth and other Confederate sympathizers. It's clear she was at least aware of the original plot to kidnap President Lincoln and did nothing about it, which these days would land her in prison at least and in 1865 put her in peril of her life. Robin Wright plays Mary Surratt with stoic reserve and gives viewers little reason to care what happens to her.
Evan Rachel Wood manages to put a little more fire into her portrayal of Mary's daughter Anna, who sees her family torn apart by its allegiance to the southern cause. Kevin Kline and Tom Wilkinson bring some gravitas to their roles as Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who ruthlessly manipulates the legal process, and Reverdy Johnson, a U.S. senator from Maryland who agrees to serve as counsel to Mary Surratt in the trial of the conspirators.
Johnson's loyalty to the Union is questioned, so the the role of counsel falls to Frederick Aiken, played by James McAvoy, best known for his role as the hapless doctor in "The Last King of Scotland." As a trial attorney, he's in over his head and the trial is rigged anyway, so Mary Surrat goes to the gallows despite his best efforts.
The trial of the conspirators (all eight of the accused were tried together) was quick and just a notch above a railroad job, but Mary Surratt had more of a defense than is depicted in the movie. She was probably not in fact guilty of conspiring to murder Lincoln, as charged, but she would have been blind and deaf not to realize that all kinds of treason was being planned under her roof. She should have kicked them all out and moved back to Maryland before Booth set his plot in motion.
Some say the film draws a comparison to the treatment of terrorism suspects today, and there are some parallels. But in 1865 they knew how to put on a trial; the murder was in April and four of the conspirators were hanged in July. Nowadays the government cannot figure out how (or whether) to try the bad guys. To this date, only one person associated with the 9/11 attacks ten years ago has been put on trial and convicted. One other trial has been pending for years. If I was Kalid Sheik Muhammed's lawyer, I'd say "Justice delayed is justice denied" and move for a mistrial.
Redford deserves credit for a good effort in the first project of the American Film Company, which hopes to make a series of acccurate and entertaining historical films. Unfortunately, "Patton" it is not and the company will need more engaging material if it needs a hit to keep the project going.
"The Conspirator," directed by Robert Redford, is a well-made historical drama, respectful of its sources and reasonably acccurate, but lacking in emotional punch and therefore unlikely to transcend the limited audience for history brought to life.
The story centers on Mary Surratt, who owned a Washington, D.C., boardinghouse frequented by John Wilkes Booth and other Confederate sympathizers. It's clear she was at least aware of the original plot to kidnap President Lincoln and did nothing about it, which these days would land her in prison at least and in 1865 put her in peril of her life. Robin Wright plays Mary Surratt with stoic reserve and gives viewers little reason to care what happens to her.
Evan Rachel Wood manages to put a little more fire into her portrayal of Mary's daughter Anna, who sees her family torn apart by its allegiance to the southern cause. Kevin Kline and Tom Wilkinson bring some gravitas to their roles as Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who ruthlessly manipulates the legal process, and Reverdy Johnson, a U.S. senator from Maryland who agrees to serve as counsel to Mary Surratt in the trial of the conspirators.
Johnson's loyalty to the Union is questioned, so the the role of counsel falls to Frederick Aiken, played by James McAvoy, best known for his role as the hapless doctor in "The Last King of Scotland." As a trial attorney, he's in over his head and the trial is rigged anyway, so Mary Surrat goes to the gallows despite his best efforts.
The trial of the conspirators (all eight of the accused were tried together) was quick and just a notch above a railroad job, but Mary Surratt had more of a defense than is depicted in the movie. She was probably not in fact guilty of conspiring to murder Lincoln, as charged, but she would have been blind and deaf not to realize that all kinds of treason was being planned under her roof. She should have kicked them all out and moved back to Maryland before Booth set his plot in motion.
Some say the film draws a comparison to the treatment of terrorism suspects today, and there are some parallels. But in 1865 they knew how to put on a trial; the murder was in April and four of the conspirators were hanged in July. Nowadays the government cannot figure out how (or whether) to try the bad guys. To this date, only one person associated with the 9/11 attacks ten years ago has been put on trial and convicted. One other trial has been pending for years. If I was Kalid Sheik Muhammed's lawyer, I'd say "Justice delayed is justice denied" and move for a mistrial.
Redford deserves credit for a good effort in the first project of the American Film Company, which hopes to make a series of acccurate and entertaining historical films. Unfortunately, "Patton" it is not and the company will need more engaging material if it needs a hit to keep the project going.
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