BEHIND THE WHEEL
An interview with Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling has a dream but its not what you would expect. It isn’t riches or success or notoriety; he has already achieved those lofty goals. No, Gosling has something much more specific in mind. “My dream is to create a character that people go out as on Halloween,” Gosling tells me when we meet at the Toronto International Film Festival. He says this with full sincerity and not a single trace of sarcasm on his beautiful face.
Gosling may have found that character in his new film, DRIVE. Known only as The Driver, his character sports a shiny bomber jacket with a giant scorpion on the back, is constantly fiddling with a toothpick in his mouth and he barely speaks a word most of the time. Aside from his inherent coolness, he is also one of the biggest badasses I’ve seen on screen all year. “He’s got issues,” Gosling quips of The Driver. “He’s a psychopath. He’s gotta get control of that, I guess.”
It was Gosling who pushed for DRIVE to be made and also for Danish director, Nicolas Winding Refn to helm. And once those two got started, there was no stopping them. “Nicolas and I creatively copulated and this movie baby was born and then we had to raise it,” explains Gosling. When he says things like this, he looks straight at you and doesn’t even flinch. It’s impressive.
The buzz behind DRIVE is as loud as the film itself and if it connects with audiences, which I assure you, it most certainly should, Gosling has the chance to continue solidifying his status as one of the most intriguing and marketable stars working today. Not too bad for a boy from London, Ontario. His work in this summer’s CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE was the best of the bunch and he also stars in next month’s THE IDES OF MARCH, directed by none other than George Clooney. Oscar is abuzz.
People are calling Gosling the next De Niro but he’s having none of it. “There is no difference between me and anyone else,” Gosling says both firmly and humbly, clearly somewhat irked by the notion itself. “I hate when that stuff happens,” he says of comparisons. “There’s no where to go after. It just sets you up to fail.”
Comparisons aside, the kind of intensity Gosling gives in DRIVE could not as easily be achieved by too many other young actors today. He is extremely intimidating and all he has to do is stand there and stare at you to accomplish this. When I ask him where he has to go in his head to be that menacing, he answers with three words, “Not too far.”
Gosling would simply prefer that his work speak for itself and his work in DRIVE is some of the best I’ve seen from him. This is likely, at least in part, due to his strong understanding of the material itself, which is based on a James Sallis novel. “Driving can be something of an existential experience,” he explains. “You aren’t being watched; you are just the watcher. It’s similar to watching a movie.”
And if that movie happens to have Gosling in the driver’s seat, all the better.
CRAZY STUPID LOVE is the second directorial effort from duo, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (I LOVE YOU PHILIP MORRIS), and even though two heads should be better than one, you would think no one was in charge from how aimless and tired this plot plays out. Their choices, whey they actually make some, are simple enough for any love struck idiot to understand. We know from the moment the film starts that the love is gone for Cal and Emily (Steve Carell and Julianne Moore) by what they're wearing on their feet. Everyone at the restaurant is playing footsie under the table with their fancy footwear except for these two. Cal is wearing running shoes so we know that he's given up trying. He also drinks from a straw and his wife does the driving so we know he's a sad man. At one point, they end up in an argument in a school parking lot, shortly after it looks like they might reconcile no less, and it begins to rain down heavily on Carell after Moore walks away from him dramatically. "What a cliche," he exclaims and I could not have agreed any more.
After Cal and Emily separate at the beginning of the film, Cal tries to get back out there. This is where he meets Jacob (Ryan Gosling), a smooth operator, who for some inexplicable reason, takes pity on Cal and decides to help him become a real man. Of course, becoming a man people can respect means buying into a world of materialism and detachment, two paths that certainly do not lead to love. As fantastic as it is to watch Gosling let loose for a change, it is clear from the start that ultimately it will be his womanizing ways that will need adjusting in order for him to find true happiness, especially if he intends to land the beautiful Hannah (Emma Stone). And as if there weren't enough tumultuous sub-plots intersecting already, screenwriter, Dan Fogelman (TANGLED), gives us a few more love conundrums to ponder involving a babysitter with an inappropriate crush, a 13-year-old lovesick boy and Kevin Bacon. The point is to distract and make us laugh but all it does is weight the whole project down with heavy awkwardness.
I will not pretend to know too much about love. It seems to me it comes in many different forms and we can only know what it does to us as individuals when we're in it. I can say that my experience has been that it is a transformative emotion well worth every pain that comes with it. It is tricky enough to navigate in the real world though and hard to take seriously in a world as contrived as the one created in CRAZY STUPID LOVE. While Ficarra and Requa attempt to convey how our modern society has made it even more difficult to find love and hold on to it once we have it, they still hold true to the archaic notion that we all have one perfect partner, a "soul mate" if you will, waiting out there for us to find. As far as love in the present day goes, that notion is about as stupid and crazy as they come.
