Cert – 12, Run-time – 2 hours 14 minutes, Director – Neill Blomkamp
Ace driving simulator player Jann (Archie Madekwe) finds himself competing at the Gran Turismo Academy in the hope of becoming a professional race car driver
Although inspired by the video game franchise of the same name, and being based on a true story directly linked to it, Gran Turismo seems to try and distance itself from the hit PlayStation games. Being more focused on telling that true story, perhaps in the hope of not being labelled as a full-on video game adaptation. Aspiring race car driver Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe) insists to both his father (Djimon Hounsou) – who wishes that his eldest son would finally put together a plan for his life and stop wasting time with games – and almost everyone else around him that it’s not a game, it’s a simulator. A simulator which could get him into a career of motor-racing in the real world.
It’s an opportunity which is expanded when he finds himself at the Gran Turismo Academy – a special training course designed to find the best player in the hope of turning them into an actual professional driver. The process is helmed by two opposing figures. While Nissan marketing executive Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom) believes in the project and how it could bring Nissan to a new audience who actually want to drive, meanwhile engineer and trainer Jack Salter (David Harbour) views the scheme is a failure from the very start, surely it can’t work?
Well, jumping from one stage to the next to the next the narrative proves otherwise. It makes for a rather by-the-books feeling as Jann develops and learns the real stakes at play when strapped to a turbo-powered car instead of sat in gaming chair. The elements which construct the film as a whole make for something watchable, but with the amount of familiar bumps and issues which are present within the convention something good is stopped from being really good, despite the occasional promise which is on display.
The promise comes most of all during the race sequences. Those which bring in video game styles and briefly, for a few seconds every now and then, replicate the visual look – not just having a 5th place sign above Jann’s car. Shots such as this are so underused you almost wonder why they’re present in the first place – even the early stages hold intense close-ups on the actual video game so that you can’t properly tell what’s happening in them. As is the case for various shots of what’s seemingly happening inside of the car’s engine at certain times, although in this case such points are likely for those who understand the inner workings of the cars proving, as Jann says, that the title product isn’t a game, it’s a simulator.
Harbour is perhaps the biggest draw as he warms to Madekwe’s well-performed character and tries to urge him on, he certainly gives the best performance in the film. He’s the character we cut back to most in response to what Jann’s doing on the track, where, again, there is some good action amongst the various cuts and breaks here and there. As a whole things move along and provide enough engagement to fill out the 2-hour-and-14-minute run-time, which just about avoids feeling too long. There are bumps of familiarity along the way, and the feeling that the film holds itself back by not being sure as to how much it wants to be linked to the video game which inspires its events, but overall there’s good, if not great, viewing here.
Gran Turismo holds itself back by not knowing how much it wants to be linked to the video game, despite it providing its best elements. There are good performances and some good moments of racing action, however convention and cutaways stop such moments from having room to breath.
Just A Little Bit Random 