“Did you feel it when you were out there? That thing where time slows down?” I got that in the cinema watching this.
Perennial Alien promiser Neill Blomkamp finds himself in the director’s driving seat for Gran Turismo, a movie based on a true story based on a reality TV show based on a video game as Jann Mardenborough, a dedicated gamer, lands a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become a professional racer. Yet, despite its high-octane premise, it’s a biopic that often struggles to get out of second gear.
Jann (Archie Madekwe), a young man obsessed with the Gran Turismo game, gets his big break when Nissan executive Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom) launches a contest to find the best Gran Turismo players and turn them into real racers. Under the mentorship of ex-racer Jack Salter (David Harbour), Jann attempts to transition from the world of simulated racing to the high-stakes realm of professional motorsports.
Cinematic racing has rarely been so dramatically inert. In a film about a boy making the leap from of simulated racing to the real thing, Blomkamp somehow manages to make real racing feel like a computer game. The visual gimmick of blending live-action and video game graphics to showcase Jann’s unique perspective is initially impressive, but overuse causes the novelty to wear thin, making them feel intrusive rather than illuminating. The action scenes are further hampered by the fact Gran Turismo doesn’t take the time to articulate the skills and tactics of motor racing. It’s a film made for the gamers and the racing enthusiasts out there, and it has no time for n00bs in either field.
David Harbour, as Jann’s mentor Jack Salter, brings a welcome injection of acting horsepower with his wry portrayal of a seasoned ex-racer who reluctantly takes Jann under his wing. Harbour’s understated intensity provides the film with much-needed torque, given that the usually firing-on-all-cylinders Archie Madekwe feels like he’s left the performance handbrake on. Also keeping the rev count up is Orlando Bloom, as ambitious and somewhat cynical Nissan marketing exec Danny, adding a dash of wideboy charm and corporate scheming to keep the otherwise fairytale rags-to-riches story believable and somewhat engaging.
By and large the biographical elements are treated as afterthoughts, after-market accessories if you’ll allow me to keep over-revving the vehicular metaphors. The domestic scenes are a curdled mix of grounded kitchen sink dialogue and sanitised suburban petty criminality that’s mostly a total write-off thanks to the non-existent chemistry between Djimon Hounsou as Jann’s father Steve and his mother Lesley, played by Geri Halliwell who seizes her chance to show us that she’s everything to the world of acting that she was to the world of music. Saddled with rote melodrama, stilted and unnatural dialogue and the absence of any sense of real familial warmth, its lucky the film leaves the rest of Jann’s family in the pits so early on. There’s also a poorly aligned romantic subplot between Jann and his crush Audrey (Maeve Courtier-Lilley), which feels tacked on and unnecessary, serving only to pad the runtime and give something for the characters to do in between races, the dramatic equivalent of a loading screen.
Those races, you’d expect, to be electric but unfortunately, Blomkamp’s hyperactively swooping camera manages to make real racing feel like just another level in a video game. The racing scenes, while technically proficient, lack the visceral thrill and danger that should have the audience gripping their seats. They provide spectacle, for sure, but there’s little drama in them and they all end in the most predictable manner (even if you’re ignorant of the actual events on which the movie is based). Perhaps the most daring visuals Gran Turismo delivers is in its globetrotting establishing shots. Okay, so it’s depiction of Tokyo is dripping with cliché, but the way Dubai is brought to the big screen makes it look like a sci-fi dystopia, a horrifying, anti-glamourous affront to nature, a monstrous monument to man’s hubris. Based on a true story indeed.
Gran Turismo does capture the spirit of an underdog story, which will resonate with fans of the genre and the journey of Jann Mardenborough is inspiring in its essence, a testament to the idea that passion and dedication can transcend the boundaries of the virtual and real worlds. However, these virtues benefit the film by default rather than by design. Sony may not have its own streaming service but this film shows what it might be like if they did: a two and a quarter hour unskippable ad for a video game from the publisher of said game who also happens to be the manufacturer of the hardware you need to play said game. Welcome to the future.
