" R The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Monday, September 19, 2011 - 7A The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Monday, September 19, 2011 - 7A French flick on 'Point' "Wait, so ... I can turn left from Packard to Hill, but not Hill to Packard? That's messed up." 'Drive' hits Gosling the hero in slow-burning action film By ANKUR SOHONI Daily Arts Writer "Drive" star Ryan Gosling has a face fit for a superhero - appropriately, the 31-year-old "Notebook" and "Blue Valentine"star has made a Drive career out of playing the At Quality16 good guy. The and Rave gentle, quiet FilmDistrict approach to his roles has made him a subtle director's dream and a teenage girl's sweetheart, combining to create one of the most legitimate, marketable stars of our time. "Drive" is no different, but it takes the actor deeper into the introvert that his pensive, seemingly unfet- tered visage perpetually guards. Gosling plays the Driver - our unnamed action-over-talk stunt driver protagonist who doubles as a freelance getaway man for heist jobs. Much like Jason Statham's turn as Frank in the "Transporter" series, Gosling's Driver is a structured, my-way-or-the-highway dude who keeps his mouth shut just about all the time. The very first scene of the film shows him drive a getaway Chevy Impala for a pair of thieves, maneu- vering through downtown Los Angeles, alternating between a police frequency and a Clippers game radio broadcast. We soon get to know the Driv- er outside of his criminal acces- sory role - he's a quiet stunt driver who works in a repair shop and is on the verge of becoming a stock car driver for a couple of L.A. businessman/ thugs (Albert Brooks, "Find- ing Nemo" and Ron Perlman, "Hellboy"). He meets his neigh- bor Irene (Carey Mulligan, "An Education") and her son Benicio (newcomer Kaden Leos). Irene's husband Standard (Oscar Isaac, "Robin Hood") is in prison, and in his stead the Driver quickly assumes a protective role over mother and child. When Standard is released from jail, our protagonist's con- flict kicks in - Standard can't escape from his past, particu- larly his past creditors, and that same past threatens to come after Irene and Benicio. The Driver befriends the father - despite his affections for his wife - and chooses to help him do a job and get the money he needs. And as one might expect, things go wrong. Really, really wrong. Suddenly, the Driver becomes the target, running and driving for his life - and more importantly, for Irene and Benicio's lives. The fascinating transforma- tion in "Drive" is the Driver's shift from indifference to pur- pose - like Travis Bickle (Rob- ert De Niro) in "Taxi Driver," the protagonist in "Drive" explodes outwards by digging See DRIVE, Page 8A By PHILIP CONKLIN DailyArts Writer "Point Blank," a French film written and directed by Fred Cavaye ("Anything For Her") opens with a chase scene. Two hefty thugs pursue a Point Blank wounded man through a clang- At the ing industrial Michigan. building, shot in M . the shaky hand- Matnolia held style of the modern gritty action film. After several tense minutes, the chas- ers catch up and hold the chasee at gunpoint, only to watch a speed- ing motorcycle hit him. Cut to a hospital room, where Samuel Pierret (Gilles Lellouche, "Tell No One") watches his wife Nadia (Elena Anaya, "Talk to Her") get an ultrasound. This marks an abrupt shift in the film's tone, as the scene is lighthearted and funny - Samuel is an atten- tive husband, and the couple is loving and adorable. When the first two scenes of a film portray such disparate worlds, the audience can be cer- tain they will collide. And they do. The chasee from the first scene, thief Hugo Sartet (Roschdy Zem, "Days of Glory"), ends up in the hospital where Samuel works as a nurse's assistant. Late that night, a man breaks into the hospital and attempts to kill the wounded Sartet, only to be saved at the last minute by Samuel. Here, only a few minutes into the film, is where the action begins - and it never lets up. The next morning Samuel is attacked by a gunman in his apartment, and his pregnant wife is kidnapped. He is ordered to break Sartet out of the hospi- tal by noon, or his wife will be murdered. This leads Samuel on How many Frenchmen does it take to resurrect CTools? a thril ney thr wife, w suit an but me "Poi tense film co cuts; s of viol twists momen anythit And w not wh But 0 Muc derived when predict audien' tion. E what t the file and the as if "P unsettL than to ling and dangerous jour- But however manipulated 'ough Paris in search of his the audience may feel, the film uith the police in hot pur- is intensely realistic. The story, d flanked by the reticent though improbable, seems like it nacing Sartet. could realistically happen. And nt Blank" is as consistently the violence, instead of being and exciting as an action stylized and glamorized like an be. There are jarring many recent action films, is life- udden, unexpected bursts like. There are certainly shocking ence; plenty of narrative moments, and the film is not for and turns and never a dull the faint of heart; but this is not t. In this film, it feels like just brutality for its own sake, and ngcouldhappenatanytime. the violence is never overly gratu- hat does happen is usually itous,just unflinching and raw. at one would expect. As"PointBlank"progressesand Samuel gets closer to his wife and develops a friendship with Sartet, :I am le tired they begin to uncover a labyrinth of violence and corruption in the f le chase police force. As the film builds to a chaotic climax, we experience everything from Samuel's point of view, so the audience is mercifully h of the film's tension is saved fromexposition. Rather, the I from misdirection. Just filmmakers use action to drive the it is apparently becoming story forward, all the way to the able, the film yanks the thrilling, satisfyingconclusion. ce in an unexpected direc- While the emotional narrative ven minute details aren't is fairly one-dimensional and most hey seem. But sometimes of the characters are never fully mmakers get carried away, developed, the simplicity serves misdirection seems forced, this fast-paced story well. "Point 'oint Blank" is trying to be Blank," at a brisk 84 minutes, is ing for its own sake rather pure entertainment and makes for develop the narrative. an exciting cinematic experience.