Drive
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan Bryan Cranston
Run time: 100 minutes
Rated: 18a
Yes, trailers suck. There are few things more annoying than watching an entire film stripped down to its best bits in a three-minute montage. Granted, a very few do it right but for the most part it's reading the Cole's Notes just before reading the book. So it is with mixed emotions that I understand someone is suing both the makers of this film and the theatre showing it because it's not like the trailer.
Sarah Deming in Michigan felt that the trailer was false advertising and in fact "bore very little similarity to a chase, or race action film... having very little driving in the motion picture." She is seeking a refund for her movie ticket as well as a halt to the production of "misleading movie trailers."
Well, I wish the best of luck to Ms. Deming but I'm not sure I agree with her. Having just watched both, I can tell you the trailer is a perfect example of why giveaway trailers should be a federal offence punishable by death. In three minutes, almost every plot point is covered, leaving nothing to surprise. Ryan Gosling is the nameless hero who drives stunt cars part-time. He gets mixed up with his neighbour and some gangsters, which leads to some tense criminal thriller entertainment. What is not covered in the trailer, and probably really upset Sarah, was the pacing. This is not a fast-paced film but rather it's a very slow, art-house minimalist film with some tense driving and a few ultra-violent killings to finish it off.
So while I would not go out of my way to recommend this film to anyone, I won't be jumping on the class action suit just yet.
