‘Gran Turismo’: Review

Dir: Neill Blomkamp. US. 2023. 134mins

Neill Blomkamp puts the pedal to the metal with Gran Turismo, a high-octane underdog sports drama that boasts electrifying race-car sequences but a badly cliched narrative away from the track. Based on a true story, this big-screen adaptation of the popular PlayStation race simulator follows a young British gamer (2017 Screen Star of Tomorrow Archie Madekwe) who is given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to trade in his controller for a chance to become a professional driver. David Harbour is compelling as a predictably grouchy tough-love mentor/coach, but Blomkamp’s enthusiasm can’t fully distract from the sense that this energetic endeavour has been constructed mostly to sell more game units. 

Presents the Gran Turismo race simulator in such glowing terms that the film often plays like a feature-length ad for the game

Sony, which owns PlayStation, releases Gran Turismo in the UK on August 9, while in the US the picture will have sneak previews followed by a larger rollout planned for August 25. The film lacks huge stars — Orlando Bloom has a supporting role — but Gran Turismo should entice car and racing aficionados. Commercial expectations will be modest, although fans of the video game, which launched in 1997, could help when the film comes to streaming. 

Madekwe plays the real-life Jann Mardenborough, a working-class Gran Turismo enthusiast who spends most of his waking hours playing the race simulator, much to the chagrin of his father (Djimon Hounsou), who thinks the boy is wasting his life with video games. But when Danny (Bloom), an enterprising Nissan marketer, decides to create a competition in which elite Gran Turismo players can join his company’s real-life race team, led by brilliant former racer Jack (Harbour), Jann suddenly finds himself doing what he’d always dreamed of — driving cars in the world’s most prestigious races.  

Shown to critics in IMAX, Gran Turismo takes advantage of large-screen formats, the race sequences zipping through the frame, the camera often swirling above the action or placing the audience perilously at ground level, never letting the viewer forget just how fast these precision vehicles are flying down the road. Blomkamp (District 9) doesn’t necessarily top other race-car dramas, such as Days Of Thunder, but the consistent propulsion of his set pieces and their dynamic editing prove gripping. The sound design puts the audience inside the car in order to feel the excitement and danger of these high-speed races. 

Even though the film takes inspiration from the life of Mardenborough, who started racing when he was only 19, the screenplay saddles Jann with a familiar narrative arc in which no one believes in him — not even Jack, who isn’t convinced a gamer can master the art of race-car driving. Sure enough, Gran Turismo will give the young man ample opportunity to prove everyone wrong, along the way finding love (Maeve Courtier-Lilley, in an underwritten girlfriend role), bonding with his disapproving dad, and discovering common ground with Jack, who could have been a champion racer if not for an easy-to-guess dark secret in his past. Not a single moment in Gran Turismo will surprise audiences — although one particularly generic story beat, involving a life-threatening scare on the track that makes Jann question his commitment, is executed stunningly well. 

Sometimes, the well-worn tropes have their charms. Harbour invests his role with such grounded emotions that he wrings something real out of his threadbare character. This is crucial considering that Madekwe lacks the charisma to make Jann resonate as an everyday teen reaching for a dream. Early on, the slick Danny is unsure if Nissan should support Jann — he’s not magnetic in front of the press, which might make him harder to market — but Madekwe’s reserved performance fails to suggest the hardscrabble fighter beneath the soft-spoken demeanour. Because Harbour brings palpable paternal energy to Jack, however, demanding the best from Jann but also connecting to this fellow outsider, their teacher-pupil relationship does have significant warmth.

Blomkamp has some fun with his mismatched main characters. (Jann is a gentle soul who listens to Enya and Kenny G to calm his nerves, while the fiery Jack prefers the intensity of Black Sabbath to get him pumped up.) And the utterly cardboard supporting characters are presented in colourfully unsubtle ways that practically provoke the audience to chuckle at the chutzpah. Unfortunately, that obviousness extends to Blomkamp’s storytelling, repeating the same points — Jann is constantly reminded that race-car driving is nothing like a video game — and always presenting the Gran Turismo race simulator in such glowing terms that the film often plays like a feature-length ad for the game. As a result, the picture could be considered a simulation itself, mimicking the crowd-pleasing rush of a sports drama, but without enough heart or soul in the tank.