Directed by: Neill Blomkamp
Starring: Archie Madekwe, David Harbour, Orlando Bloom, Geri Halliwell, Djimon Hounsou, Darren Bennet, Josha Stradowski
Gran Turismo's plot sounds like something out of a video-game player's fantasy, but is based on a true story of Jann Mardenborough (Madekwe), a teenage Gran Turismo player who became a professional race car driver. I hadn't heard of Mardenborough prior to this movie and I haven't read anything about him since. Movies "based on a true story" take license to create the optimum dramatic effect. I didn't want to disrupt the magic of Gran Turismo by reading a Wikipedia article telling me how eighty percent of the movie was bullshit.
Maybe most or all of Gran Turismo happened or maybe most or all of it didn't happen, but what's here is absorbing and intense. We find ourselves caring and that is what matters most. Neill Blomkamp's film takes time to explain how real race car driving is radically different than a video game. I know, duh, but the person who is our portal to the world of professional racing is former racer-turned-chief-engineer Jack Salter (Harbour). How did Jann even get the opportunity to race professionally? Nissan sales executive Danny Moore (Bloom) successfully pitches the Nissan board in Tokyo to promote a contest in which one lucky Gran Turismo player can race on the European circuit. Ten players worldwide qualify to participate in Nissan Academy, led by Danny and Jack, who put the racers through hell in order to weed out who even has a remote chance of being a successful driver.
Jack resents the idea of video-game players trying to invade the sport he loves, but it beats working for cocky creeps like his former boss Nicholas Capa (Stradowski), who is the movie's villain who we want to see Jann defeat on his way to glory, like Cary Elwes' character in Days of Thunder. Blomkamp's staging of the races allow us to know what is happening and why. They are presented realistically, rivaling Ford v. Ferrari in that department. And just like Ford v. Ferrari, Gran Turismo's final race is Le Mans, where Jann and two other members of Nissan Academy take on resentful competition who view the "gamers" with disdain.
Madekwe plays Jann with a quiet intensity which grows more convincing as the film goes on. Harbour's performance and character are at the heart of the film. He's the insider who has no confidence that Jann could hang with the pros, but becomes a believer. Jann has a love interest and a family that initially doesn't believe in him, but these subplots seem dropped in than based on real life. These are the only tropes which slow Gran Turismo down, but only briefly, because in the end, we find ourselves wrapped up in Jann's story. How much of it is true? I don't know and at this point, I don't want to know.
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