Drive - Despite being skeptical about it I really ended up enjoying this one. At first I thought it moved a little slow and found the way the director chose to develop the relationship between Gosling and Mulligan to be a little disjointed and awkward. But then I realized that the entire movie was made in a way to eliminate unnecessary exposition (in fact this movie is the absolute anti-exposition, there is little dialogue and almost none from Gosling). It was done in such a way that made it a clean, easy story to follow and my mind easily filled in the blanks. For example it really doesn't matter how Gosling found the dude at the strip joint because in these films the protagonist always finds their target so why waste time showing it in great detail? That was a recurring element throughout the entire film, it doesn't matter how they got their because they always get there. I also enjoyed the change of perspective during the elevator and walking up to Nino's in the mask sequences.
Gosling conveyed a lot with perhaps the fewest number of lines I have seen from a main character since Eastwood in Sergio Leone's films.
Despite the name this isn't a film about driving cars fast, although there certainly is that element, this is not a Fast Five type film (which is what I worried about and was thrilled that it was not) it's a compelling crime drama with uniquely parsimonious story telling style.
I could see it being too slow for some, particularly the 20 minutes after the opening sequence (which was incredibly well done), but this is one I would definitely recommend for most film viewers. Likely would make my 2011 top 10 list if I made one.
One question though: Why was Christina Hendricks even in the film? I like to look at her and all but she seemed pretty useless and inconsequential to the story.