Gran Turismo (12A)

Working-class teenager Jann Mardenborough has already shaken off his underdog status in the highly competitive world of gaming, beating thousands of other gamers in the GT Academy competition organised by Nissan marketing executive Danny Moore. His prize is intense in-person training under cynical former professional driver Jack Salter and an opportunity to sit behind the wheel of a real racing car.

LondonNet Film Review

Gran Turismo (12A) Film Review from LondonNet

Based on the inspirational true story of Darlington-born professional racing driver Jann Mardenborough, Gran Turismo explores the rarefied world of motor sport through the eyes of a panic attack-stricken teenager, whose only previous exposure to race circuits has been a highly realistic driving simulator. Screenwriters Jason Hall and Zach Baylin tinker under the bonnet of a conventional underdog sports drama, introducing arrogant and privileged rivals in the pit lane who Jann must beat to the chequered flag, sometimes by hundredths of a second. A romantic subplot to humanise the central character is on cruise control for the duration…

Director Neill Blomkamp and cinematographer Jacques Jouffret turbo-charge racing sequences with drone technology so cameras chase cars at up to 150mph and capture thrilling shots of vehicles jostling for position from vertiginous vantage points. Mardenborough serves as a stunt double for actor Archie Madekwe in these high-speed set pieces, augmented with video game-style graphics and polished digital flourishes that successfully visualise the conflation of real and virtual worlds in Jann’s mind.

We first meet shy 19-year-old Jann (Madekwe) in Cardiff, growing up in a working-class household with his former professional footballer father, Steve (Djimon Hounsou), mother Lesley (Geri Halliwell-Horner) and younger brother Coby (Daniel Puig). Using money from a job at a clothes shop, Jann builds a gaming station in his bedroom replete with driving wheel so he can shave fractions of a second off impressive lap times in the Gran Turismo racing simulator created by Kazunori Yamauchi (Takehiro Hira). The teenager yearns for the day when he can trade the adrenaline rush of virtual racing for a real-life performance car.

An impossible dream becomes reality when Jann enters the GT Academy competition created by Nissan marketing executive Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom), which brings together Gran Turismo players from across the world to secure a racing career on the track. Jann makes the cut along with nine other hopefuls and begins intensive training under cynical, washed-up former driver Jack Salter (David Harbour). The stakes are high as Jann feels the need for speed against fierce rivals including cocksure American gamer Matty Davis (Darren Barnet). Jann soothes jangling nerves by listening to smooth jazz before a race but Jack needs his protege to be firing on all cylinders. “Take all that Kenny G anger and unleash it!” he roars.

Gran Turismo accelerates smoothly out of a sluggish opening lap of character development and confidently gear shifts around the appealing double-act of Madekwe and Harbour. Father-son conflict (“I am doing it, whether you believe in me or not!” Jann angrily informs Steve) is fuel in the film’s tank for the initial stretch but feuds on international circuits quickly supplant tension back at home as Blomkamp seeks the perfect racing line to each literal and figurative grandstand finish.

– Jo Planter