Start your engines! Gran Turismo is a surprising heart-thumper to end out the summer. It’s everything a great sports movie should be: earnest, exciting, suspenseful, and just a little bit cheesy.
This somehow true story chronicles the early career of video game expert turned professional race car driver Jann Mardenborough and the program that began his real-world racing career.
In short, Mardenborough (masterfully played by Archie Madekwe) is one of the world’s best players of the video game Gran Turismo, and his life changes when he qualifies to compete in a training program to turn players into real drivers, thus beginning his career on the real race tracks he’s mastered digitally.
Most of what follows centres on Mardenborough and his key relationships: trainer Jack Salter (David Harbour), marketing exec and team leader Danny (Orlando Bloom) and his parents (Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou and Geri Halliwell).
The full cast does a great job balancing the screenplay’s choppy and overly fast series of events and finding the tactics and stakes of each step in Mardenborough’s journey. Madekwe especially gives a truly star-making turn, and Harbour is an excellent counterpoint as his coach - they find great layers in the classic athlete/coach story.
Late August is normally a time of year when studios dump movies they have minimal confidence in, but Gran Turismo was actually slated to come out two weeks ago until a last-minute date (and gear) shift earlier this month. Why? Sony was nervous about competing with the sustained popularity of double feature Barbenheimer.
Now, after the bold date switch, Gran Turismo will benefit from having the spotlight, being the only new movie coming out this week. Like certain professional drivers, this move that might seem cocky at first instead reveals itself to be more gracious.
The biographical story’s premise is so endearing that its easy to forgive the subtle self-promotions for the sport, basis video game, and Sony as a whole. And the salesmanship comes endlessly from breakout star Archie Madekwe.
Sony and producer Paramount Pictures have taken some care to not overexert the audience with references to the real-world companies who benefit from the promotion of this story, but it’s an unavoidable cinema sin. What I did like was the crisp sound editing, and easter egg of using Playstation game sound effects in the film’s transitions - that’s a classy touch.
Overall, Gran Turismo has the likeable qualities that popular sports movies carry. The subject matter is serious but it’s easy to cheer for Jann to win each race.
My opening night audience loudly applauded and cheered multiple times during the movie - a great indictor of audience popularity. One moment towards the end of the film got an especially rich reaction from the crowd, and that kind of group enthusiasm is what going to the movies is all about.
Gran Turismo
7 out of 10
PG, 2hrs 14mins. Sports Action Biography Drama.
Directed by Neill Blomkamp.
Starring Archie Madekwe, David Harbour, Orlando Bloom, Geri Halliwell, Maeve Courtier-Lilley and Dijon Hounsou.
Now Playing at Film.Ca Cinemas, Cineplex Winston Churchill & VIP and Cineplex Oakville & VIP.
