It has a little trouble shifting gears, but it sure is fun to watch.

Rating: 7/10 (5 October 2013)

Ron Howard has a thing for movies based on true stories (see Apollo 13, Frost/Nixon and A Beautiful Mind), but none has been quite as high- octane as Rush, which has a very different feel from his previous work. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. After all, Howard is arguably one of the most consistent directors working today as far as quality goes, and Rush is a high-quality film. However, it feels like it's lost somewhere between a drama and an action movie. There are a lot of scenes representing both genres, but the two somehow seem out of sync. Something holds Rush back from being a truly great film.
Being that it's Ron Howard in the director's chair, I had high expectations for the movie, especially because it stars Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, who is quickly becoming a household name and is deserving of a role in which he can flex his acting muscles rather than his biceps. For the most part, he does a convincing job as Formula 1 driver James Hunt. This is probably because he has Daniel Brühl to work with as his arch rival, Niki Lauda, who shares tremendous chemistry with Hemsworth. And yet, the two are comically different from each other. Hunt is the playboy, partying it up and living each day to the fullest, while Lauda is cold and calculating, as finely tuned as the machines he drives. Really, it would have been next to impossible for these two not to be rivals, and indeed that's the focus of Rush.
The film takes a firm look at what it takes to be a champion and, more importantly, the cost that such a drive can have on a man. The best example is the brutal car crash Lauda experiences mid-season, from which he miraculously recovered in order to return and finish the last of the races that year. While Niki's cost was more physical, James has quite an emotionally driven journey as well, as he literally destroys his life in pursuit of that championship title. Really, it's as though the two drivers represent different aspects of one person, and the movie represents the personal tragedy from which all great tales are built.
Visually speaking, this is Ron Howard's most unique film to date. It's a lot more visceral than his previous films, with sex scenes and even a few stomach-churning wrecks (Niki Lauda suffers horrifying injuries as a result of his crash). It's also a lot bolder than his previous works. Howard adopts a style meant to mirror the high-adrenaline lifestyle that these two men enjoy, with plenty of slow motion and tight editing. With all this, though, I have to ask: "Why does it feel so slow at certain parts?" I'm not normally the type of guy who shrugs off a movie's story, but I couldn't help feeling impatient waiting for the dialogue to end and the racing to begin. This is one reason I don't feel like Rush was a truly great film.
I'm not saying that it's a bad film, though; quite the contrary, Rush is a very good movie, and probably one of the best racing movies ever made. It pretty much gives the audience everything they expect, and in some cases even more (props to Hemsworth for being so much more that a pretty face). I'm almost positive that it will pop up for some sort of award during the Oscars. For me, though, the film never really shifts into high gear. It doesn't cross that line into greatness, and I'm pretty sure I wont remember much about it when 2014 rolls around. That doesn't mean that it isn't worth seeing, though, and I would actually highly recommend it. After all, it's a very human tale, and it's one about which I can imagine everyone finding something to enjoy. It's just not something that echos with the viewer after the end credits.