Gran Turismo

Gran Turismo follows the true story of Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe), a 19-year-old who loves playing the hit PlayStation game series Gran Turismo. One day, a Motorsport marketing executive (Orlando Bloom) decides to create a program to train Gran Turismo gamers to be real racers. An extremely skeptical trainer (David Harbour) is put on the program. 

I can easily see how people could enjoy this film. My early screening audience were clapping, laughing, and cheering at nearly everything that happened in the film. I’m happy for them and I can understand the appeal. Unfortunately, I personally found this to be an incredibly dull by-the-numbers underdog story that frequently felt like a commercial for Gran Turismo. 

One issue I had was the acting, which was mostly unimpressive. Madekwe had none of the charisma the lead needed, which ensured I remained entirely uninvested in the story. Orlando Bloom and David Harbour are generally actors I enjoy, but here they give what may be their career worsts. Bloom’s hair and makeup in this film is truly strange and took me out of the film every time he was on-screen to the point where I was unable to take his character seriously. Harbour is a very delightful actor, but he is unfortunately given material so horrendous that even he cannot charm his way through it. Djimon Honsou and Geri Halliwell portray Jann’s parents decently, but they are given no characterization and no reason for us to care about their characters as a result. 

My biggest issue with the film, though, has to be the script. It is bizarre that 2 Oscar nominees worked on this script because there are so many generic plot points and concepts and so little character depth, especially for the women. The three women in this film can be summed up with one character trait: the manic pixie dream girl, the goofy competitor, and the caring mom. Everything about this film’s writing points to how little effort was put into it, and because of its insistence on simplicity and not trying one bit, what could have been a fun racing movie turns into disposable schlock.

The one somewhat bright spot (or at least, the one spot that’s not quite as dim as the others) is the direction. Director Neil Blomkamp, who in the eyes of many has fallen off since his Oscar breakthrough District 9, brings some necessary style to this film. The racing scenes absolutely have an edge to them, and while they didn’t really work for me, there was life and energy in them in a film where both were sorely missing. 

This wasn’t the worst movie in the world, and I can understand why some audiences would enjoy it. It’s harmless entertainment, and if all you’re looking for in this film is a few cool racing scenes and some yelling here and there, you won’t be too disappointed. Alas, for me it was a fairly joyless waste of 2 hours and 15 minutes, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone unless you genuinely have nothing else to do with yourself. I promise you, anything else would be more rewarding and valuable than this.

3/10