Drive
As chilly as a Copenhagen winter and often tensely quiet before exploding with brutal violence, Drive -- directed by Danish indie filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn -- sometimes feel like an exercise, a foreigner's academic take on a Hollywood genre piece. Still, even though it doesn't careen around corners, Drive is a thrilling ride. Ryan Gosling is the nameless driver, the go-to guy if a car has to be driven hard and fast. He wants to be an auto racer, an ambition that his mechanic (Bryan Cranston) is helping him with by introducing him to people who could bankroll him, mobsters played by Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman. On the other hand, he is falling for young mom Irene (Carey Mulligan), literally the girl next door. Gosling is so unemotional that, at times, he verges on the somnambulant. Yet the action scenes are gripping, and Refn's painterly way with a camera adds allure.
The Big Year follows three men (Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black) all suffering from spiritual malaise, who enter a yearlong bird-spotting contest. Yet as directed by David Frankel (Marley & Me), the film offers no insight into its folly-prone characters, and it's hard to care about anything that happens here.
In Time, starring Justin Timberlake, takes place in a parallel universe, where genetic engineering has given mankind the gift of stopping the aging process at age 25. The retro-futuristic production design is far more intriguing than the story.
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