Rush (2013)

It’s rarely a great idea to define characters by one trait, but Ron Howard’s Formula One drama Rush actually makes the broad strokes work by becoming a film about two radically different approaches to racing and life. It’s not a remotely complex piece of work—Howard doesn’t make too many of those—but it’s a good, engaging story slickly packaged by the director into an efficient and constantly exciting drama. Add on two wonderful lead performances by Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl, and you’ve got a film that works simply because everybody involved is doing their job at a high level. There’s not a lot of mystery to what makes Rush tick.

Hemsworth and Brühl play James Hunt and Niki Lauda, respectively. The former is a British party boy who is just as reckless on the track as he is off of it. The latter, meanwhile, approaches the sport with the ruthlessness of a scientist. He knows everything that he needs to do to win, and he executes it almost perfectly without flair or excessive risk. The first half of the film chronicles their respective ascents into Formula One superstardom, while the second half focuses exclusively on the 1976 season, as Hunt and Lauda battled for the World Championship. Rush bounces back and forth between their considerable professional and personal struggles, including Hunt’s dramatic marriage to Suzy Miller (Olivia Wilde) and Lauda’s less exciting union with Marlene Knaus (Alexandra Maria Lara).

The racing sequences in Rush are probably the most superficially thrilling setpieces that Howard has created in a long time. The film reminds us multiple times of the thrills and dangers of Formula One racing, and Howard is able to convey that visually as well as through dialogue. Much of the credit should also go to veteran screenwriter Peter Morgan, who was able to take two characters who could have potentially been one note and give their relationship/rivalry some real credibility. If anything, Howard sometimes makes the dichotomy between the two a bit too broad, but Morgan is careful not to be so plain. Their respective motivations don’t seem to be driven by an invisible hand, which could have easily been the case. Rush isn’t the most substantial piece of entertainment, but there’s not a whole lot wrong with it either.

Grade: B