“Drive” is a movie that doesn’t bend to fit the usual clichés of a Hollywood action movie but while its’ stretches without dialogue and outbursts of shocking violence may seem to be off-putting, it ultimately adds up to one of the best films so far this year.

The film, based on a novel by James Sallis, focuses on a man known simply as Driver, played by Ryan Gosling. He’s a stunt driver for movies during the day, and at night he can be hired as the getaway driver in heists. If you hire him for the latter, you get five minutes of his time, but as the exhilarating opening scene shows, it’s plenty.

His low-key existence is turned on its’ head after he meets his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her young son Benicio.  He immediately takes a shine to them and the feeling seems mutual until her ex-con husband, Standard, is released from prison. But once out, Standard finds himself in debt with the wrong people and he recruits Driver to help him with this one last job.

Suffice to say, the heist goes terribly wrong and Driver finds himself forced to fight for both his survival, and the people he’s grown to care for.

The chemistry between Gosling and Mulligan is almost tangible, their scenes contain little to no dialogue at all but it’s still obvious that the connection is there.

What may polarize audiences are the sporadic bits of violence that hit you with grit and realism that is hard to shake but never feels gratuitous. Everything unfolds on the screen in a natural way that never feels forced or added simply for shock value.

The film won director Nicolas Winding Refn the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival, and will hopefully be among the films discussed come awards time.

The acting is all top-notch with sharp performances from Bryan Cranston as a father figure of sorts to Driver, Ron Perlman as a shady Mafioso operating out of a pizza parlor and Albert Brooks as a smart, collected and terrifying mob boss on Driver’s trail, but the performance to watch is Gosling.

With little to no dialogue in most scenes, he still makes Driver a character you can understand and sympathize with as the situation deteriorates around him with a glance or heart-filled stare.

“Drive” is not for all audiences, but with great acting, good storytelling and ever escalating tension, it’s sure to find an audience eager to greet it.