Sometimes, I think I have a certain bias to look at films from a feminist point of view (Bechdel test and that type of thing).
I liked Drive but Irene somewhat spoiled the movie to me. Do you think she has any personality at all? It seems to me she is just filling "the girl of the man" role.
I thought Irene and the driver was like 2 peas in a pod, neither of them needed words to express how they felt, so yeah she had as much personality as the driver had.
We only know more of the driver's personality because of the decisions he has to take and well because he's the main focus of the movie.
Thought she was great and they had great chemistry...
Interesting sidenote is that them having very little dialogue towards eachother was actualy their (Gosling and Mulligan's) idea, they had alot of dialogue written but they felt like it would be alot more natural if they merely interacted with eachother without talking much, so they actually told the director that they won't say this or that and to just deal with it.
Me, who isn't much of a talker really appreciated that and I think that worked great.
We crash into each other, just so we can feel something.
Interesting sidenote is that them having very little dialogue towards eachother was actualy their (Gosling and Mulligan's) idea, they had alot of dialogue written but they felt like it would be alot more natural if they merely interacted with eachother without talking much, so they actually told the director that they won't say this or that and to just deal with it.
Which is a perfect demonstration of how dangerous it is to inflict a presumptuous analytical perspective on a piece, ie. feminist analysis.
reply share
Like Adam_West_as_Batdan I also believe both Irene and the driver were probably meant to be very non-verbal as people, but I don't think it necessarily worked particularly well or at least wasn't executed to perfection. I thought even the driver felt a little bland, but Irene even more so because clearly she doesn't do a thing and her inner life isn't explored at all (she's a main character but the script cares so little about her you'd think she was a minor character).
So I'd say it wouldn't be unreasonable to add Irene to the official list of female characters who are frighteningly underdeveloped in comparison to the male characters in the same film/tv show.