What is the meaning of life? Is it to seek a higher purpose than ourselves? Is it simply to exist? Is it to make the most of our short time on Earth? Is it 42? Who knows for sure; I certainly am not in a position to give a definitive answer to that question. Ron Howard's new film, "Rush," seeks not to answer this ultimate question, but to give an example of what it meant personally to Formula One racers and rivals Niki Lauda and James Hunt.
In 1970, Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) meet at an amateur race and take an instant disliking to each other, one that lasts well into their professional careers.
The rivalry is changed forever when Lauda is horrifically injured in a running accident and must fight not only for his life, but his pride as well.
"Rush" was written by Peter Morgan, a British writer whom I personally think is very hit or miss, but one area that he has down pat is conflict, particularly when the stakes are personal.
His previous collaboration with Howard, "Frost/Nixon," is also a battle between two men, an inexperienced reporter and President Richard Nixon, depicted by Morgan as a sympathetic slimeball. "Rush" is a return to familiar territory, but what makes the film so unique is how evenly matched its protagonists are.
I just wish that he didn't resort to using extremely unsubtle narration to introduce Hunt and Lauda to us (and once again at the end as a denouement).
For a movie about living life to the edge, "Rush" contains a good amount of moderation in its attention to its subjects. Hunt and Lauda are given almost equal screen time and neither man is "good" or "bad" in the traditional sense.
You'll find your sympathies wavering between both for most of the film and that's all right; the point is not to get you to sympathize with anyone in particular, but to focus on the rivalry at hand. Hemsworth does a fine job outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Bruhl introduces himself, and his velvet-like voice, as a force to be reckoned with.
As to why Lauda and Hunt don't like each other, one could ask why oil and water don't get along. Lauda is a hermit in his steadfast devotion to his sport.
A savant at putting together cars, he controls himself with the patience of a monk and rarely engages in any debauchery. Hunt, on the other hand, is a full-blown libertine with an endless parade of women at his beck and call and enough alcohol on hand to stun an elephant. Yet what unites both men is their immense love for racing. They are drawn to it like moths to the light; it is something beautifully incomprehensible but potentially deadly.
And what of the racing in "Rush"? You can't have a movie about Formula One drivers without some cool racing shots. The good thing about Formula One is that it isn't NASCAR. And what I mean by that is that instead of driving around in circles for 500 miles, Formula One is literally (and no pun intended) fast and furious. The cars are faster, the courses are full of crazy turns and the drivers have very little experience. It is, as Hunt puts it in the film, akin to driving a bomb.
Thanks to Anthony Dod Mantle, one of the best working cinematographers, it feels like the bomb could explode any minute. There are enough point-of-view shots to make you wonder why "Rush" wasn't released in 3D. I'm not saying that it needed to, but there has to be one Hollywood executive out there kicking himself for not thinking of that.
But then again, "Rush" is not a Michael Bay shoot-em-up; it is a character study of two men who happen to do something exciting for a living.
And it is for that reason that you'll wish they had left the women out of the film. Is there truly nothing better for Olivia Wilde to do than to chew scenery and bust out the faux-British accent as Hunt's wife? Or what of Alexandra Maria Lara settling into the "supportive wife" troupe as Lauda's spouse and not doing much with it?
This is the biggest speed bump in "Rush" and one that does a good bit of damage to the film, but it doesn't produce a total loss to what is still a fascinating and exciting portrait of what lengths men will go to for what matters to them.
"Rush" is currently playing at the Nugget.
