Going off the premise alone, you'd be forgiven for dismissing Drive as a mindless action movie. You can practically hear the hyper-serious trailer voiceover: "Ryan Gosling is a stuntman by day, getaway driver by night. But when the mob goes after the woman he loves, he's going to have to stop running and start … to drive." Luckily, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn is simply too good to fall into that trap and turns Drive into a slow-burning caper, injecting it with a unique style that's both a throwback to the cheesy action movies of the '80s while also serving as a love letter to older chase films like Bullit, as well as '70s neo-noir.

Drive's story is fairly simple; Ryan Gosling plays a terse, unnamed mechanic and part-time Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver for heists. He works anonymously, severing ties with his clients the minute he arrives at his destination. The only other person he really interacts with is his employer at the garage, Shannon (Bryan Cranston), a smarmy mechanic whose dreams of wealth seem to be proportional to his luck. This stable, solitary existence is shaken by two things. First, Gosling's character befriends and develops feelings for his next-door neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan), a young mother whose husband is currently in prison. Second, Shannon has decided that the Driver would be perfect for the NASCAR circuit and asks for sponsorship from mobster Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) and his foul-mouthed partner, Nino (a terrifying Ron Perlman). For a while, the Driver is in a good place with all this, until Irene's husband, Standard (Oscar Isaac), is released early from prison. He wants to get away from his old life of crime but still owes protection money to a local mobster. When the mobsters threaten to go after Irene and her son, the Driver volunteers his efforts to help Standard get through one last heist.

Since this is a crime film, things go horribly wrong. Standard is gunned down, and the Driver is suddenly thrown into a race to find out who set him up and how to keep them away from Irene. Trying to do the right thing, he travels through Los Angeles' underground on a crusade to protect the people he's grown to care about.

In all, Drive has a fairly straightforward mystery plot. There are a couple of twists here and there, but this isn't The Departed. At the end of the day, you know where everybody stands. But Drive is proof that simple doesn't mean boring. Refn and screenwriter Hossein Amini have crafted a tightly wound thriller, characterized by stretches of gut-wrenching wait punctuated by short bursts of violence. The action is short and almost mechanical in its efficiency. Even the chase scenes are short-lived, all the while being far more interesting than the long, drawn-out chases that define series like The Fast and the Furious. In the film, the violence that is seen is brutal. Quick shots of gore and close-ups on wounds show just how high the stakes have become for the Driver.

One of the most interesting parts of the film might just be the Driver himself. Ryan Gosling owns the role, giving him an air of likeability despite doing most of his acting through body language. He's just too mysterious to be anything other than intriguing. The Driver doesn't have any backstory, knows no one outside of Shannon and does nothing with his free time that doesn't involve cars. Even his apartment is completely bare save for a desk he uses to work on engine parts. You get the feeling that Irene and her son are the only things he actually cares about, or, at the very least, the only people who get him to show something akin to happiness. Just as memorable is L.A. kingpin Bernie Rose. Comedian Albert Brooks plays against his type here, and he performs masterfully. Unlike most movie gangsters, Rose doesn't really like killing people; it's just an unfortunate aspect of his job. Granted, he's pretty adept at finding new and painful ways to end his rivals' lives, but he doesn't revel in it. He just shakes his head and gets on with his life, which is ultimately what makes him all the more unpredictable. On the other end of the spectrum is Nino, Rose's second-in-command. He's big, angry and is played by Ron Perlman, which, as anyone who's seen Sons of Anarchy knows, is not good news for anyone who might be in his way.

All this comes together to make an experience that sticks with the audience long after the movie has ended. Sure, it might not be as deep as more cerebral offerings like Tree of Life, but it is still one of the most engaging films this year. Instead aiming for the brain, Drive goes straight for the gut and hits its target masterfully.