After some
awkwardly unfunny acting in Arrested
Development´s fourth seasons, Ron Howard returns to directing. Despite it´s
name, Rush is not a movie about the
legendary Canadian hard rock band, but instead about two Formula 1 drivers
during the 70s. One (other than being a Norse god), James Hunt, is a handsome,
witty playboy living his life on the edge. The other, Niki Lauda, is a
calculated, detail-oriented intellectual. Together they form a bitter rivalry
that would prove near fatal for one of them.
The film is
heavily stylized, something that had me worried at first, but once 5-10 minutes
had passed I was totally with the style. The style is a bit odd in some of the
quieter scenes, but once the wheels start spinning it is all worth it. The
driving was by far some of the most intense racing I have ever seen on film,
and the crashes were truly terrifying. However, as cool it was visually I still
do think it did overpower the drama at times, which is a bit of a bummer.
As for the
writing, it was very strong for the most part, yet I could not help but feel
like a lot was missing. Of course when a film is covering roughly 6 years of
two peoples career you have to move fast through a lot of information,
something the film does very well. At times it has almost a documentary vibe to
it in the way it moves through several races over short time, but it does it in
the way of an exiting action film. At a point the film started hinting at some
of James Hunt´s darker sides, including substance abuse. For the first you feel
like you get a full view of this man, but then it never properly explored this
side of him, even though it was a very important part of the man. That being
said, I do understand why they choose to merely hint at it instead of exploring
it, as the film is mainly meant to be fun and exiting, something it does
succeed in. The only point where I thought it lost track was during the last 15
minutes or so where the film forced a sense of closure upon itself by saying
things that I thought had already been said through subtlety. In my opinion the
last 10-15 minutes could have been cut down to 5 for a better result. Ending a
film is difficult and when done wrong it can partly overshadow how great
everything else was, as it did for me.
The two
leads are both great, as well as being some of the most perfect casting in
years. Chris Hemsworth gets to show that he is more than simply a perfectly
haired muscle charmer, but actually a pretty damn good actor as well. However,
it is the creepy Nazi film star from Inglorious
Basterds, Daniel Brühl, who steals the show as Lauda. He is definitely a
frontrunner in my book for this upcoming awards season.
Despite the
fact that it never delves too deep into the characters, it is an exhilarating action
sports film that portrays an interesting rivalry. As whole the documentary Senna was better, but in contrast this
film manages to show the rivalry from both sides. Outside a brilliant
performance from Brühl it may not be the Oscar contender Ron Howard might be
hoping for, but it is still a very entertaining film.
3.5/5
