“ABDUCTION” GRIPPING

ABDUCTION

Starring Taylor Lautner,

Lily Collins,

Denzel Whitaker,

Jason Isaacs,

Maria Bello,

Alfred Molina,

Sigourney Weaver

Directed by John Singleton

Written by Shawn Christensen

Running time 106 mins.

Rated PG-13

          Plays like a modern teenage myth.

          Guaranteed I’m the only one who will call the Taylor Lautner film “Abduction” a myth, so I’ll go even further: It’s a father quest myth. A search for identity.

          Upshot: In his last year of high school, a young dude (Lautner) writing a class report learns that his parents aren’t actually his parents after all, and finds himself running for his life with the girl across the street (Collins).

          Ah, the mysterious birth of the hero. From Theseus to Luke Skywalker, it’s essential for the young princeling to discover the true nobility of his birth. The story’s as old as the hills, and in this fresh retelling social media pervade. Cell phones are today’s light sabers.

          This movie has some serious surprises, and the biggest one is how well Lautner can act. I have zero use for “Twilight”–actively I do not like shiny vampires–but that franchise has no bearing on the talent of at least two of its stars. Earlier this year, Robert Pattinson shone in “Water for Elephants,” and here Taylor Lautner delivers an equally credible, if not exceptional, performance.

          Ditto for the dude who plays Lucius Malfoy. Jason Isaacs is almost unrecognizable as the kid’s dad. I’ve seen that guy in a few other roles, and I think this is his best work yet. You’d never guess the guy’s British, that’s for sure.

          And to top it all off, Sigourney Weaver and Alfred Molina. Now that’s a cast.

          At times it feels like “Romeo and Juliet” meets “North by Northwest.” Those are pretty much the times during the train sequence. Young love on the lam. Big ugly old people chasing the little pretty young ones around, trying to catch them and smash them. This movie has everything.

          Well, within reason. A more innovative film would star Alfred Molina as a guy who knows all about his parents, yet gets chased around by mysterious young people trying to kill him. Then in a pinch he discovers he knows kung fu! Just brainstorming, I’m seeing Molina as a movie reviewer here....

         

        

“DRIVE” CARVES FILM NICHE

DRIVE

Starring Ryan Gosling,

Carey Mulligan,

Bryan Cranston,

Albert Brooks,

Oscar Isaac,

Ron Perlman

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

Written by Hossein Amini

Based on the book by James Sallis

Running time 100 mins.

Rated R

          One of the best movies of the year.

          Like Jean Reno in “The Professional,” Ryan Gosling turns in an immediate cult classic performance with “Drive.” Like Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle in “Taxi Driver,” Gosling’s unnamed driver is an understated potentially career-defining role.

          Upshot: Part-time movie stunt driver moonlighting as freelance robbery wheel-man develops relationship with woman, thereby becomes vulnerable, and has to keep work-related danger from spilling into personal life.

          The performances are everything in “Drive.” Primarily Gosling’s. I just saw him a few weeks ago in “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” If you want a lesson in acting, watch that movie and then this one. Riveting. Unique in film. Right up there with Toshiro Mifune (whose samurai in “Yojimbo” Eastwood modeled his Man with No Name in “A Fistful of Dollars”), even Steve McQueen, and Lee Marvin. Gosling understands apparently better than anyone else in movies that stillness is his ally.

          “Drive” flat-out looks like a movie from somebody with a vision. We’re hooked before the credits even come up. I love when a movie can do that.

          The car chases beat “Bullit” and “The French Connection” combined, and at least two of the supporting roles will likely get some Oscar buzz: Albert Brooks in a terrific piece of casting as an L.A. mob boss, and Bryan Cranston as a sort of mentor-figure to the driver.

          For no discernible reason, the filmmakers choose a retro-‘80s aesthetic. The poster looks right out of 1986, and a scene full of synthesizer sounds could have come from a quarter-century ago as well. Chalk that up toward vision.

          Ditto for the hardcore violence. And it isn’t even superfluous. Everything in the movie is there for a reason. Feels like it anyway, so that’s good enough.

          Every once in a while a great movie comes out of nowhere fully formed from Zeus’s thigh. One based neither on a comic book nor TV show. One without hype, and no burger franchise tie-in. “The Hitcher” was like that. And “Taken.” (That’s got one of the best tag-lines I’ve ever heard: “They took his daughter. He’ll take their lives.”) Actually I think “Taken” did advertise Liam Neeson-inspired chili-cheese fries. But “Drive” won’t steer you wrong.