It’s amazing how a good sports movie can suck you in: take a talented, determined underdog who, with a small support group, overcomes obstacles to show they’ve got what it takes. “Gran Turismo” sucks you in.
It’s a crazy story that’s actually true: a Nissan marketing exec named Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom) had the harebrained idea to turn an expert player of the popular “Gran Turismo” auto racing-simulation video game into a real auto racer. Maybe Moore was a movie fan who watched “The Last Starfighter,” where aliens use a video game to recruit the best player for an actual space battle, or “Armageddon,” where drillers were trained to be astronauts to save the world, and figured the idea could work. As dangerous or impossible as the idea sounds, Moore gets the OK to start a GT Academy to recruit and train skilled players.
Of course, Moore needs help getting the recruits ready and finds former race car driver Jack Salter (David Harbour). Salter was a good driver but quit racing after an accident made him exit. While Salter flatly refuses Moore’s offer as too dangerous, Salter soon finds himself between a rock and a hard place career-wise and, against his better judgment, takes the job as trainer.
When the recruits arrive to race actual cars, Salter is tough to weed out the weak before their flaming corpses occupy the weeds around the racetrack. The recruit we follow in “Turismo” is Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe), a kid from the UK with no career aspirations other than to follow where his strengths and interests lie- he knows he’s great at “Gran Turismo.” When the GT Academy selects Jann, we’re as disbelieving as his father Steve (Djimon Hounsou) that Jann’s dreams could come to fruition. But belief and support through the struggles sometimes pay off over adversity.
Honestly, I had no expectations for “Gran Turismo,” so the fact that this movie met them was a low bar to hurdle. However, the successful sports movie formula kicked in and captured my interest. Credit some nice surprises in director Neill Blomkamp for taking a break from his sci-fi film niche (:District 9,” “Elysium”) to keep the auto racing action easy to follow and giving actors Madekwe (taking a break from Ari Aster films like “Midsommer” and “Beau is Afraid”) and Hounsou (taking a break from the “Shazam” films) a chance to do some nice work.
However, the standout in “Turismo’s” cast is David Harbour, an actor I’ve liked and who most know from Netflix’s “Stranger Things” or as Marvel’s “Black Widow’s” dad- a.k.a Red Guardian. Harbour’s been acting for over twenty years, but he’s got the right temperament for Salter, a guy who knows the pitfalls and prepares Jann by being tough yet tender, a no-nonsense guy who won’t betray his integrity even at the behest of those above him. Take a look at Harbour as Salter taking Jann under his wing at a roadside talk after tragedy befalls Jann, and you’ve got a performance that carries the same demeanor as Ed Harris in “Apollo 13.” Though “Turismo” is far from Oscar bait, I’d like to see Harbour (like Harris) get consideration for a supporting actor Oscar nod. For those looking to get hooked into a sports movie that works, “Gran Turismo’s” got the formula to fix you: while innate ability goes so far, you need (as the film proves, in more ways than one) drive.