Ron Howard dips into true life again for a zippy biopic fit for adrenaline junkies of all kinds. Elizabeth Kerr reports.

Ron Howard has been down this road before. Back in the day, he convinced exploitation maestro and mentor to many Roger Corman to give him his first directing gig. That was 1977's Grand Theft Auto, and he's clearly maintained his affinity for fast cars and revving engines. It shows in the liveliness and palpable energy that informs the track sequences in Rush, which so lovingly recreates (with stellar work by Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle) the racetrack vibe you can almost smell the motor oil. That's also indicative of Howard's tendency to simplify and sentimentalize the human elements of his films (Apollo 13, The Cinderella Man, A Beautiful Mind) for easy mass consumption. Howard is not a great artist, but he puts bodies in the seats and to say most of his films fail to entertain is a lie. It's just sometimes you wish there was a little more "there" there.

Rush recounts the 1976 Formula 1 season that culminated in a fiery crash at Germany's Nrburgring track, otherwise known as The Graveyard. In that memorable year, the rivalry between Ferrari driver Niki Lauda (Daniel Brhl) and new McLaren driver James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth, at his most ridiculously charming) reached epic proportions that were nearly as entertaining as the races. How accurate any of their behind the scenes bickering and eventually grudging respect are is anyone's guess, but in Howard and writer Peter Morgan's hands it's the stuff of the popular jock-loser nerd dynamic and it breaks down a likely complex relationship - to each other and to their sport - to its most digestible parts. Hemsworth and Brhl go a long way to deepening the material, but the scenes away from the track feel hackneyed no matter how hard they try.

The enormously popular British Hunt is the playboy, quick with a quip and a smile, always with a beautiful woman on one hand and a drink in the other. Lauda is his polar opposite: quiet, introverted, intensely focused, clinical. The Austrian Lauda is a technical driver that uses engineering and mechanics to get faster, weighs the odds at every turn and works the rulebook to his favor. By the time August rolls around, Lauda is leading the pack and Hunt is frustrated beyond belief, so when Lauda calls a meeting before the German race and expresses concerns about the safety of the track, his suggestion to cancel is shot down. As is well documented, the race goes ahead and Lauda ends the day in a hospital with massive burns fighting for his life.

Despite Hemsworth's modelesque visage being plastered all over the promotional posters, it could easily be argued that Rush is Lauda's story. To be fair, the movie is most vibrant on the track but it's also juiced in its final act by Lauda's Herculean efforts to get back in the car that nearly killed him. Brhl (Inglourious Basterds, the upcoming The Fifth Estate) injects just the right dose of resentment to flavor Lauda's drive without making him the sniveling pest his nickname, The Rat, would suggest. As best he can, Brhl makes us understand the insecurity that informs his curt bravado. And Hemsworth, who's still battling his superhero persona, proves there's more to him than looks, but he's ideally cast as the perfect man that works hard to hide any vulnerability. Howards's decision to go soft on any real emotional or psychological examinations (a brief post-season chat between Lauda and Hunt notwithstanding, which is a highlight) was probably right, as Rush is really about men and their machines. That's okay. They're really cool machines.

Rush opens in Hong Kong on October 10.

(HK Edition 09/27/2013 page7)