Comfort & speed

Rating: 7/10 (28 February 2006)

Souping up his handmade speed racer motorbike, Anthony Hopkins (playing an aging Burt Munro) sets about making a land speed record in the 1960s. This gently-paced movie radiates charm throughout and picks up tension in the final race at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats. Hopkins seems authentic as a New Zealander, and the script gives him plenty of room to crack typical Kiwi jokes. Sets have been lovingly re-created and the culture clash when he comes to America comes across well. Given the paucity of strong elderly icons in cinema, this one does well. It's a movie that, if it doesn't exactly blow your socks off, is one you can curl up for and enjoy with the whole family. Let me just get my cocoa . . .