Looking at its box office, it seems I wasn’t the only one who was skeptical that a two-plus-hour Gran Turismo movie was worth their time. I’m not saying it did terribly – it made almost double its budget – but given the legacy of the racing simulator it’s based on, I’m sure Sony expected much higher returns. Having seen it now, however, I kind of wish I had spent the money to see it in theaters. Director Neill Blomkamp and his crew crafted a sharp-looking, emotionally-moving racing movie that cleverly shirks its video game origins in order to focus on its uplifting “true story” as much as possible. If it weren’t for a few narrative miscues, Gran Turismo could’ve been the biggest surprise of the summer.

The first act of Gran Turismo is its most flawed. At the beginning, we meet the main character, Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe), a 20-year old gamer who excels at playing the titular racing sim. His father Steve (Djimon Hounsou) greatly disapproves of his son’s hobby, leading to a number of predictable arguments between the two. In what’s becoming a trend in his films, Hounsou is utterly underused in these early scenes, being reduced to playing the loving but domineering patriarch. Even more egregiously, the script fabricates drama in the early going when it isn’t needed, especially during a grating sequence when Jann goes drinking with some friends. It culminates in a brief car chase that is meant to make Jann look cool, but ends up being too irritating to achieve this aim. Also, part of this sequence is intended to introduce Jann’s love interest, Audrey (Maeve Courtier-Lilley), a character who adds so little to the story that it would’ve been better to cut her altogether and trim the bloated runtime.

Meanwhile in the first act, Nissan executive Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom) pitches his idea to take the best Gran Turismo players and turn them into racecar drivers, which Nissan approves.* After exhausting his preferred options, Danny recruits a reluctant ex-driver named Jack Salter (David Harbour) to train the gamers, including Jann after he qualifies. It’s Jack Salter – or David Harbour, really – who invigorates this film as it heads into its second act. Watching his tough love approach to mentoring the drivers, specifically Jann, is never anything less than engaging. Salter constantly reminds his students, and thusly the audience, that racing is a perilous sport; not a video game with a reset button. It’s a simple but powerful message that drives home the stakes to us viewers, while also placing a spotlight on how mentally demanding motorsport actually is. In addition, by repeating this message, Blomkamp and the screenwriters (Jason Hall & Zach Baylin) anchor the story to real-life challenges, rather than anything too video game-y.

Once Jann earned his spot as one of Team Nissan’s drivers and the third act picked up, I fully recognized Gran Turismo’s two greatest traits. One, Blomkamp’s direction is still as effective as it was back when he made District 9. Working with cinematographer Jacques Jouffret, Blomkamp helms a number of riveting racing sequences that feature many nifty drone shots while limiting use of visual effects. In 4K on a big screen, this film is quite the spectacle. Two, the actors, specifically Harbour and Madekwe, bring abundant emotion to their fleshed-out character arcs. Both Jann and Salter overcome a great deal throughout this movie, which, given its video game roots, was pleasantly surprising. I kind of expected both of the lead stars to take it easy in this. Instead, they gave it their all, and the end result is an uplifting racing flick with satisfying human drama.

Other than some aforementioned issues, Gran Turismo’s only other drawback is that plays too fast and loose with Jann’s actual racing history.** I was so inspired by his achievements that I immediately looked him up on the internet, only to find out how loosely “based on a true story” Gran Turismo is. Suddenly, I was a lot less inspired, but to be fair, ignoring the facts did make for a much better film. And that’s the thing: this is an undoubtedly entertaining watch, and one that should appeal to gamers and non-gamers alike. That fact alone is a big-time accomplishment for a movie so heavily marketed around its video game ties. If those ties are what’s giving you pause, I recommend that you ignore them and give Gran Turismo a shot. You might get something out of it like I did. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m off to play a little Forza.

If I had to score it, I’d give Gran Turismo a 7/10.***

Notes:

* Jann was actually the third winner of Nissan’s GT Academy, but I understand the dramatic value of presenting him as the first.

** [Minor Spoiler] As shown in the trailer, Jann is involved in a serious crash in Gran Turismo. The depiction of this crash has been the root of some controversy, because it actually happened two years into Jann’s career rather than at the beginning of it, and it claimed the life of a spectator. Is it callous to re-imagine such an event and make it the pivotal moment of your film? Yeah, it is. That said, the film does so delicately enough that it feels fairly respectful.

*** I almost deducted Gran Turismo a point for using Moby’s “God Moving Over The Face of the Waters” in its climax. It’s a terrific song, but it belongs in one movie and one movie alone: Heat. Also, I’m not even sure that it’s tonally appropriate for the moment in which it’s used. In the end, I decided not to hold its usage against the movie, but oh boy, I wanted to.