Howard Shines Again
After recently watching Apollo 13 for the first time, my expectations for Ron Howard films remained pretty high. I was not let down with Rush. I went to go see this movie at ArcLight and our usher announced this movie by explaining that it was Howard's directorial request to notch up the volume to get the full effect of the movie. Unfortunately, the seniors in our early-bird showing were not too keen on the loudness of the car engines, but even after the volume was brought down to a normal level, the effects were still intense.
The power of this film is in the perspective Howard chooses to show the audience. His attention to detail is so intense that it creates a very real, heart-pounding series of events for the viewer. The MVP acting performance for me goes to Daniel Brühle, whose portrayal of Niki Lauda was hair-raising at times. Chris Hemsworth was only good in the sense that whenever he had dialogue exchanges with Brühle, the onscreen chemistry was palpable. I have never been sold on Olivia Wilde, and her performance here was no exception. The cast worked, but Howard's creative mind trumped it all.
One of the few things that didn't click for me while watching the film was the attempt to create a year-long narrative appear to take place in the span of a week. With all of the different races going on, the plot develop got pretty spotty jumping from race to race. Brühle's character was the most emotionally convincing, but the satellite characters simply lacked invested passion. In other words, what was supposed to be emotionally gripping, was not emotionally gripping. These details were probably drowned out by the revving of the engines. Literally.
Still, this is a wonderful movie, and you definitely need to put it on your to-do list for this movie season.
Written October 10, 2013
The power of this film is in the perspective Howard chooses to show the audience. His attention to detail is so intense that it creates a very real, heart-pounding series of events for the viewer. The MVP acting performance for me goes to Daniel Brühle, whose portrayal of Niki Lauda was hair-raising at times. Chris Hemsworth was only good in the sense that whenever he had dialogue exchanges with Brühle, the onscreen chemistry was palpable. I have never been sold on Olivia Wilde, and her performance here was no exception. The cast worked, but Howard's creative mind trumped it all.
One of the few things that didn't click for me while watching the film was the attempt to create a year-long narrative appear to take place in the span of a week. With all of the different races going on, the plot develop got pretty spotty jumping from race to race. Brühle's character was the most emotionally convincing, but the satellite characters simply lacked invested passion. In other words, what was supposed to be emotionally gripping, was not emotionally gripping. These details were probably drowned out by the revving of the engines. Literally.
Still, this is a wonderful movie, and you definitely need to put it on your to-do list for this movie season.
Written October 10, 2013