It's a winner!

Rating: 8/10 (5 November 2019)

I'm no petrolhead. What little knowledge I have of classic cars I gleaned from playing Top Trumps as a kid. I do remember that if you had either the Ford GT40 or a Ferrari card, there was a very good chance of winning the hand, unless, of course, the two cars came up against each other. Then you had to choose wisely.
In the mid-'60s, Ford and Ferrari fought it out for real at Le Mans, a road race that lasts almost as long as this film (jk). At a whopping 152 minutes, director James Mangold's biopic is no quick win, but buckle up and sit back for the duration and you will be rewarded with a film that delivers great performances, a gripping tale of determination and courage, and some truly spectacular racing scenes (real or CGI? I couldn't tell).
Matt Damon plays car designer Carroll Shelby (the man who gave us the AC Cobra, another good Top Trumps card) who is hired by Ford Motors to help build a car that can beat Ferrari at Le Mans, thereby improving the company's image in the eyes of young Americans and putting the Italians in their place at the same time. Christian Bale is Ken Mills, the man chosen by Shelby to drive the car against the wishes of Ford executive Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas).
A classic underdog story, the film follows the team as they design and test the new race-car, experiencing various setbacks along the way (some of which are orchestrated by Beebe, who wants to see Mills fail), before finally making it to France. American viewers will no doubt feel a sense of pride at Ford's remarkable endeavour, but it'll be us Brits who'll be cheering the loudest (at least on the inside), for it is Englishman Ken Miles (a likeable turn from Christian Bale) who is the real hero of the film, pushing himself and the car to the limits.
The legendary 24-hour road race itself delivers all the thrills and spills necessary for an edge-of-the-seat finale, with Mills making a mockery of the Ferrari team as promised, but anyone geared up for a feel-good finish will be sorely disappointed, reality rarely being the fairytale we would like it to be. Remaining true to the facts, the film's final lap delivers a double-whammy of a downer that drives home the fact that, sometimes, life just sucks.
7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for the hilarious scene in which Shelby takes Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) for a quick spin (and I do mean quick!).