This is one of those movies that pretty much delivers what the trailer promises. In fact, if you watch the trailer, you will know all of the plot points for the movie.
It’s about Hunt, James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth), and Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl), who are best frenemies and drive around in circles really fast in Formula One. They both want the same thing: the championship title.
Or do they?
It takes a well done movie to get me to give even half a shit about race car drivers. This one managed it. And I think it’s entirely because both Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl were excellent. And honestly, I feel like Hemsworth kind of got put more in the forefront for this movie, but Daniel Brühl is really the one who made it. Niki Lauda came across as a much more intense and complex character because he wasn’t the typical death-chasing party boy that is normally presented as the race car driver “type.” Plus, Brühl just convinced me solidly that there was a lot more going on beneath the brusque surface, and it was all very subtly done. I don’t know if Chris Hemsworth didn’t have enough to work with, or if he just didn’t get to go that deep, but Hunt was much less compelling.
The movie was very much set up and conducted as a comparison of the two men, up to and including their marriages. It’s about their rivalry and seems to sketch a journey from enemies to a surprisingly supportive friendship, though I think it comes across as far simpler than it deserves. Even if Hunt came across as less complex as a character, he provided an excellent foil for Lauda. Rush builds them up as equally determined and driven men with very, very different personalities, goals, and needs. Niki Lauda was definitely the one I was with at the end of the movie. Even more interesting, apparently Lauda was very involved in the making of the movie.
Big personalities and fast cars. There you go. Also, the movie is gorgeous.
And I suppose I would be remiss in my red-blooded woman duties if I didn’t note that there’s a healthy whack of nudity, and some of it involves Chris Hemsworth’s bottom. Just in case you wanted to know. But even without Chris Hemsworth’s bottom, it’s a gorgeous movie.