If I were to describe faster in a single word it would be this: surprising. Granted, Faster was everything I expected it to be, a violent rage fueled revenge festival, but it was also a lot of things I wasn't expecting at all.
The first and most surprising thing about this movie was that Dwayne Johnson is a good actor in the right circumstances. Either he was born to play this character or something else just synced up at the right time. Now I'm not saying that Johnson is a bad actor, I'm just saying that in my opinion, he hasn't been a terribly good actor in the past. In the case of Driver however, Dwayne Johnson's performance was excellent. His character has a constant agitated sense of restlessness. Even when he's not moving, you can sense the tension he feels and the intense emotions that drive him.
There isn't much back story and I think that's part of what makes the movie great. You've got violent protagonist X within murderous motivation Y and he needs to kill dudes A, B, and C. The plot is very simple and I feel that's what generates lots of room for solid characters. Driver is not just a murderous thug driven purely by anger. He's a murderous thug driven by anger who is still struggling with a profound sense of loss even years after the event. The plan seems simple: go out and murder a bunch of dudes and then call it a day.
However, things are rarely as simple as they seem at the beginning. From one step to the next, we see a depth and complexity to Driver that would not be obvious upon first perusal. Choices aren't easy and simple, there's a certain amount of thought and pain behind all of them, some more than others.
Aside from Driver, Cop and Killer, the other two main characters are also interesting and compelling in their own ways. I won't delve too far into them because I don't want to ruin anything, but suffice to say, these guys just add to Faster being a very strong, very character driven film in my opinion.
So should you see this movie? Yes, see it now.
Comments