Drive – April’s Book and Movie Review

Dorlana Vann ♦ April 25, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

Quick Book/Movie Summary:

Novel (2006) – Author: James Sallis (Summary from Amazon) Drive is about a man who does stunt driving for movies by day and drives for criminals at night.

Movie (2011) – Screenwriter: Hossein Amini Director: Nicolas Winding Refn  (summary from imdb) A mysterious Hollywood stuntman and mechanic moonlights as a getaway driver and finds himself trouble when he helps out his neighbor.

Book/Movie Club Set Up:

Our group (women ages 23-47) pick a book that has been made into a movie. We read the book and then get together for thematic food, to discuss the book, and then to watch the movie.

On the menu:

Each of us are to bring either a drink, dessert and/or appetizer and it is fun to use the story for inspiration. Below is the spread for this month.

Food: Pepperoni pizza (delivered of course), pineapple alfredo pizza, chocolate cupcakes, brownies, roasted Brussels sprouts, chips and dip, parmesan wings.

Drinks: red wine, beer

Thoughts about the Book: It was unanimous – nobody liked it. It was confusing and disjointed. I got lost a few times, but didn’t bother to go back and find out what I missed. I just kept reading so I could get to the end.

The style of the book kind of reminded me of an indie-film, but the problem is, it’s a book not a movie, so it didn’t quite work without a solid plot.

Several of us did like the character Doc and his cat. Those few chapters kept my attention for some reason.

Thoughts about the Movie:

Everyone liked the movie better than the book, which is becoming (surprisingly) more of the norm for our group.

I think the screenwriter did a great job of bringing all the disjointed elements of the book together and creating a cohesive storyline while maintaining the stylistic vibe of the book. He also made the main character, Driver, more relatable (and likeable) by changing his quick tempered disposition to an only-violent-when-extremely-motivated one.

Some of us liked the soundtrack and others didn’t think it actually went with the movie. There was a lot of staring, which at times became distracting, which became silly & comical.

The Girly Discussions:

We thought the book and the movie were targeted for a male audience – especially the movie – car chases and stunts, hands-over-the-eyes gross violence – At one point in the movie, someone said, “The only thing missing are boobs.” And guess what the next scene was, lol.

We also thought the elevator scene was very strange …

Interesting Discoveries:

It was called “arthouse action” by Rotten Tomatoes which gave it 92% on their TOMATOMETER – I can see that.

The Group’s Average ratings:

Book: 1 glasses of wine out of 5

Movie: 3 glasses of wine out of 5

The bottom line:

I can’t recommend the book because I didn’t care for it. However, it is completely different than anything I’ve ever read, and it did provide the background of the character for the movie.

The movie is worth watching – I liked the music and the style – just know that it is going to turn gross-violent without warning … no time to look away! “Ewww …”

Next month’s Book and Movie:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (with a zombie garden party theme)

Love and Laughter,

Dorlana