Vroom for improvement

Rating: 6/10 (4 September 2013)

Ron Howard's handsomely-staged drama unfolds in the pit lanes, plush homes, and smoky offices of the Formula 1 world of the mid-1970s. A period biopic, it has a similar look and feel to Tom Hooper's The Damned United, and while it also shares a writer (Peter Morgan), this film isn't buoyed by the same standard of cast.
The story concerns the rivalry between Englishman James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) as they work (or buy) their way up from Formula 3 and compete for the 1976 World Championship. When a film is based on real events, professional critics have a habit of giving away the entire plot, as if we should already be aware of every twist and turn. Ignorance is bliss, as far as this non-professional is concerned, so all I'll say is that there are crashes and squeals on and off the track, and the Championship goes down to the wire.
Some things about Rush are very good. Anthony Dod Mantle's cinematography is pristinely flashy and grimy in the right measures. Hans Zimmer's score is suitably stirring - and suitably drowned out by the excellent sound design. The performances are all solid.
The problems are with the script, whose dialogue can be lousy at times; really clunky and by-the-numbers. Ron Howard works with workmanlike efficiency, concentrating on moving the plot onward, but never allowing a scene to breathe, perhaps for fear our attention won't hold before the next engine roar. I would rather have seen a tighter focus on fewer characters, and got more involved in Lauda's unusual relationship with his wife (Alexandra Maria Lara, making the most of a virtually silent role). The psychology of those who dance with death for a living is referred to without being explored.
So we're left with a swift, visceral, formulaic page-turner - one that's worth a watch, for non-drivers and petrolheads alike.