Okay, so I realize I’m probably gonna get a lot of crap for this post, but I’m writing it anyway. This is a post dedicated to Ryan Gosling. This is not a post dedicated to his toned abs, crooked smile, or the way he seems to stare straight out of the screen and into my soul–er, sorry, got a little carried away there… Ahem. As I was saying, this is a post dedicated to Ryan Gosling, because he is totally, 100 percent, kicking mother-loving ass right now. You can argue that 2011 was the Year of Charismatic French Men, or the Year of the Chastain, or even the Year of the (Adorable) Dog, but I will tell you that 2011 was the Year of the Gosling. Let me tell you why.
Ryan Gosling is not making mistakes. His career really started cooking in 2004, when he starred in the tearjerk-iest of all 
Nicholas Sparks’ adaptations: The Notebook. Ticket-holders everywhere sighed, swooned, and fell in love with Gosling’s Noah, the devoted lover who worked hard for what he wanted and built a home with his own two hands. Every woman I know (and a lot of men, too) lost their collective shit over this movie. I was among them.
This movie introduced us to brooding, tortured-soul Gosling, a type he’s developed and adapted in many of his roles. Now, usually a Romantic Lead becomes a Romantic Lead for Life, slowly languishing away in the same role, movie after movie. Hollywood has a way of saying “Hey, this works: so do it again.” Few have escaped this fate (Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio come to mind as two exceptions to the rule). That’s not to say that Gosling hasn’t played romantic men, but he’s somehow avoided becoming a cog in the Romantic Lead machine. He has instead consistently performed beautifully in quietly affecting films like Half Nelson (for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, lest you forget!), Lars and the Real Girl, and Blue Valentine.
And then came 2011–the year that Gosling featured in a romantic comedy, a political drama, and an action film. Finding an actor capable of traversing genres is a tall order, but Gosling has done so with seeming ease. He received Golden Globe nominations for his performances in Crazy, Stupid, Love. and Ides of March, and starred in the critically acclaimed film Drive. In Crazy, Stupid, Love. Gosling surprised me with his comic timing, holding his own with comedy heavyweight Steve Carell. But it was his performance in Drive that impressed me most. When I left the theater I was overwhelmed and awed by Gosling’s haunting turn as Driver. The role capitalized on Gosling’s strengths–his ability to imbue silences with meaning through heavy looks, slight shifts in body language, and even the murmur of his voice. 
He continues to impress me with his portrayals of loving but flawed men–men who are physically strong but yet somehow lost. Like Lars in Lars and the Real Girl and Dean in Blue Valentine, Driver is a man trapped by circumstance, trying with quiet, devoted desperation to make it all work out. Perhaps Roger Ebert said it best, when he remarked of Gosling in Drive: “He embodies presence and sincerity… [Gosling] has shown a gift for finding arresting, powerful characters. An actor who can fall in love with a love doll and make us believe it, as he did in Lars and the Real Girl, can achieve just about anything.” It’s this “sincerity” that I find most appealing and utterly unmatchable by Gosling’s peers; to me, when Gosling is playing a character he actually becomes the man. By comparison, when I watched George Clooney in The Descendants I felt as though I was watching Clooney-as-distraught-father, not Matt King crying over his dying wife. Clooney gives a strong and emotional performance, but he remains Clooney in a Matt King mask. Gosling, however, fully embodies his roles. He has a singular ability to pull me into the narrative through sheer force of believability. It’s astounding, really.
Yes, Gosling is the good-looking man who has inspired countless “Hey, Girl” internet memes, but he’s also the actor who gave what I consider the best performance of any actor in 2011. Driver is the strongest performance of his career, and I look forward to seeing what Gosling brings to the table in 2012. And if you’ve got something bad to say about him, well, to quote Driver, “How ’bout this. You shut your mouth. Or I’ll kick your teeth down your throat and I’ll shut it for you.”
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Couldn’t agree more. One of the things I like most about him (aside from his incredible talent) is his devotion to the craft. He’s not some young Hollywood prima donna who’s only it for the fame. He clearly cares most about plugging away, giving great performances in whatever comes his way.
Twitter: mrsthuro
February 7, 2012 7:10 am
No crap from me on this one. I just rewatched Drive last night and I am once again kicking myself so hard I can barely sit.
We covered Gosling’s career on our podcast back in May. At the time I hadn’t gotten a chance to see Blue Valentine and it was a few more months until his 2011 revolution would start. So I was left with a “he can do so much more” attitude.
Now he is easily one of my favorite working actors for all the reasons you mentioned. But I still twitch when I think about The Notebook; that one just didn’t do it for me.
This made me giggle. And I never giggle. No, you make a good argument and now I may re-evaluate my feelings towards Gosling. I’ve never particularly been impressed by him, either as an actor or a heart-throb. I just don’t find him that interesting; boring even. But perhaps I shall give him another chance.
Is this the “Silly” post you were talking about?
How come you had to knock the Descendants again, what’s up with that?
This quote sounded funny coming from your avatar… “How ’bout this. You shut your mouth. Or I’ll kick your teeth down your throat and I’ll shut it for you.” LOL.
All the chop busting aside, nice piece, you make some good points. He’s definitely heading to the A list quickly.
Thanks Fogs, yes, this is the silly post I mentioned (well, at least the beginning is silly.) Don’t kill me for the “Descendants” knock–it was the best example I could come up with — you have to admit that stars like Clooney (or Julia Roberts, for the female stars) are so big and well-known that they play themselves playing someone else.
Master Thespians, both.
Twitter: manilovefilms
February 9, 2012 9:37 pm
“you have to admit that stars like Clooney (or Julia Roberts, for the female stars) are so big and well-known that they play themselves playing someone else.”
I don’t think that’s necessarily true or fair – it seems to me to be more of consequence of the circumstances. You’ve seen Clooney (and Roberts) and/or his movies and/or been aware of his massive star power for much longer than you have Gosling – don’t you think that familiarity plays into your believing of the character? Wait and see if Gosling ends up “just playing Gosling again” in movies in 15 years. I’m not 100% sure that will be the case (a good counter to that would be Daniel Day-Lewis, or perhaps even Streep), but it does seem a bit too early to tell.
Twitter: NeverTooEarlyMP
February 7, 2012 9:48 pm
I agree completely about Gosling, and am actually proud of him for taking such different types of roles, when it would be so easy for him to get caught in a rut. I’m a little disappointed that he keeps missing out on Oscar nominations, but if he keeps up the work, eventually they’ll have to award him for something. In the meantime, I think he has to be one of the most in demand actors, not just for executives who like great abs, but more from the directors who want someone that they know they can count on for a great performance.
No no no. VASTLY overrated. He is good – but he ain’t THAT good. Robert De Niro … Dustin Hoffman … Leonardo DiCaprio … (though i’m not a fan, I can understand) Johnny Depp… Denzel Washington … George Clooney (and the last one, again, i’m not obsessed with but can understand) … Tom Hanks.
But Ryan Gosling. I don’t think so. He is going for the indie crowd and he is trying so hard to be a big deal – but I don’t think he could carry anything outside of the indie circuit. I think he is sadly a little too young to truly judge and he needs a big budget film that wholly relies on him in the centre to truly shine – DRIVE looked good and whatnot, but Gosling was a quiet, unassuming character … BLUE VALENTINE was tragic and deeply affecting, but it was 50% Michelle Williams and 50% Gosling.
He is trying, but he is not there yet…
Fair point about him not helming a big-budget film, but can you elaborate on the “trying so hard to be a big deal”? I think it’s picking interesting scripts more than anything else, but please tell me more!
I mean that a huge bunch of films are solely about him as the main character – DRIVE, HALF NELSON and LAR AND THE REAL GIRL are very much him, on his own, holding the film. In fairness, when I think about DiCaprio’s breakout films he was simply so good he took away the attention from the other leading roles – TITANIC, ROMEO+JULIET, WHO’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE as his early films were by no-means “DICaprio” vehicles. Even THE BEACH, though very much him at the centre of the story, I don’t think that he was too overbearing. Whereas, HALF-NELSON and DRIVE almost feel like Gosling si saying “look, i’m a REAL actor”
Twitter: agracru
February 8, 2012 12:33 pm
I’m inclined to agree with Simon. Drive represents the first performance where he really feels like he’s genuinely acting instead of reading lines off a piece of paper and taking queues from a director. (Grant that I haven’t seen Blue Valentine.)
Twitter: manilovefilms
February 9, 2012 9:39 pm
I’m with you on Gosling as an actor of high quality, and his performance in Drive is very good, but it’s a disservice to his career to call it his best yet. Frankly, I don’t think all that much was asked of him there – his Half Nelson role called for a lot more, and even Lars did as well (though I didn’t care too much for the flick). Drive is about direction much more than performance…hell, even Brooks couldn’t get a nomination…
You make a fair point, Dylan; maybe I like the film so much that it’s hard to distinguish between the qualities of the acting versus the qualities the directing gives the performance…
Gosling doesn’t do much in Drive, but damn, he does it well. But, of course, the directing is what really sells it.