Drive v 10 Things I Hate About You
Last Sunday, we had company over to watch Drive instead of the Super Bowl. After watching Drive, we agreed to watch something fluffier. 10 Things I Hate About You was
the choice. How will a gritty action and a romantic comedy fare against each other?
For those who do not know, the 2012
King of the Hill Movie Challenge is my system for determining the
best movie of year that I saw. One movie from each month will be
selected and, at the end of the year, I will do a tournament style
showdown where they will take each other on until the final movie has
been selected. Bracket placement will be determined by the number of
movies the monthly movie faced and won.
First Contender: Drive
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Writers: Hossein Amini, James Sallis
Staring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan,
and Bryan Cranston
Drive is, without a doubt, gritty and dark. It opens with a calm, cool getaway driver (Ryan
Gosling) waiting for some robbers to return to the car from a heist.
During the escape, the driver never loses his cool, even when those
sitting in the back of his car are clearly starting to freak out
about their pursuit from the authorities. The driver succeeds with his getaway and
walks away as if nothing had happened at all.
Notice how I keep referring to the
protagonist as “the driver”. In the movie, his name is never
mentioned. In the ending credits, the character is only identified as
“Driver”. This is a very interesting method of storytelling.
Denying critical information about someone is a way to keep the
audience invested in the character. Drive doesn't just withhold the
character's name. Drive also denies a lot of information about Ryan
Gosling's character. Midway through the movie, we learn that the driver just arrived one day. There is no history to this character at all. Another trick is seen at the start of the movie. For the first fifteen minutes of the movie, the driver rarely
speaks. This hooked me onto the character early on. Later, when the movie gets really crazy, I found myself forgiving the driver for some of his behaviors because I was hooked on his mysterious nature. I can't think of a movie that uses this technique better than Drive.
The story itself was decent, albeit
dark. Drive is about the driver and his romantic interest in Irene
(Carey Mulligan). This is complicated by the fact that Irene is
married and her husband is in prison. The driver, who cares more for
Irene than her husband does, attempts to help Irene's husband get out
of tough situation. This creates a downward spiral that doesn't let up until the movie ends. The movie also has several of
the goriest scenes I have seen in a while. If
you do not like blood and gore, this is NOT the movie for you.
Challenger: 10 Things I Hate About You
Director: Gil Junger
Writers: Karen McCullah Lutz, Kristen
Smith
Staring: Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles,
Joseph Gorden-Levitt
10 Things I Hate About You is a movie
based on the William Shakespeare play, The Taming of the Shrew. The
movie follows Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) and his attempt to woo
Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles). I'd call the story formulaic, but this
is based off of Shakespeare after all. Patrick is a tough, shop
class student at school that everyone is afraid of. Cameron James
(Joseph Gorden-Levitt) wants to date Kat's sister, but can't until
Kat has a boyfriend of her own. So Cameron and his friend Michael
(David Krumholtz) trick Joey (Andrew Keegan) into paying Patrick to
date Kat.
This formula is pretty common place in
movies these days. Guy lies about something to girl. Guy reaches
the point that the original lie no longer matters. Girl learns about
lie. Guy has to convince girl that the lie no longer matters. Guy
eventually gets girl back. 10 Things I Hate About You stands higher
than the rest of the field of this formula. First, it rightfully
attributes that the plot premise is from The Taming of the Shrew.
Second, the movie is well directed and well cast. The movie avoids
common place cliches, common for movies at that time, with twists to
the characters. Joey, the “villain”, is a model, not a football
jock. Michael, the goofball, is decently liked in school. Patrick
isn't just a shop guy, he also has a history that gives his character
depth.
Summary:
This is the hardest decision I've had
to make so far. I enjoyed both movies quite a bit. Picking which
movie won has been difficult. When I started writing the post, I
hadn't yet decided. However, having now written out my response to
each film, I can come to a decision. 10 Things I Hate About You is a
great film. If you haven't seen it, rent it. However, 10 Things I
Hate About You is a retelling of a famous story. Drive has a plot
I've never encountered before. It has a type of character I would
normally loathe that I actually sympathized with. I can't overlook
that.
Winner: Drive
