Speed, charm, and glee

Rating: 8/10 (4 March 2006)

Few actors/actresses can consistently disappear into their characters. Anthony Hopkins, who plays Munro, is one of them. In fact, the only times I've been truly disappointed with Hopkins is when he plays someone normal, like an FBI agent (Bad Company) or a kindly old man (Hearts in Atlantis). Make him a psychotic ventriloquist (Magic), an eccentric painter (Surviving Picasso), a paranoid president (Nixon) or a cannibal (Silence of the Lambs), and he's riveting. It's on the strength of Hopkins' characterization of the quirky, obsessed, yet down-to-earth Munro that this film succeeds. This is a movie with heart and charm. It makes you feel good about our species without getting overly sentimental  a rare feat.
Munro is the type of guy that Americans lionize: the entrepreneur, the engineer, the man who sticks with his vision, year after year, in the face of ridicule. Yet few Americans would put up with Munro's flip side: engine tests at the crack of dawn, any day of the week; an unkempt yard made of weeds and grass gone to seed; only a basic grasp of the social graces. Luckily for the audience, Munro's neighbors are fairly tolerant of Burt.
In addition to being about Burt's mission, the movie is also about Burt's marvelous road trip to Bonneville. Funded by his community, Burt sets gamely off on his journey without a firm grasp of American import regulations, American culture, and the rules of Bonneville's "Speed Week." Unburdened by these constraints, Burt solves one challenge after another  mechanical, social, and financial  as they come, with resourcefulness and grace.
The scenes at the Bonneville Salt Flats make this movie worth seeing in the theater. I can't imagine getting the same sensation of speed and accompanying adrenaline rush from even a 54-inch screen.
Hopkins has said that this film is it's the best thing he's ever done, and while I could quibble, I couldn't argue with the grin on my face and euphoria inside as I left the theater.