F1 Review: Brad Pitt Takes Us To The Heart Of Formula 1 But Stops Short Of Perfection

NDTV

5 hours ago

New Delhi:
The formula is as simple as it is unambiguous. Director Joseph Kosinski makes the most of it. He taps the torque of two globally saleable entities - Formula One and Brad Pitt - to propel a plot centred on a former race track maverick offered a chance to find his way out of anonymity.
When the man at the heart of the high-octane action is Pitt, a charismatic Hollywood powerhouse who has carried many a blockbuster on his shoulders over the decades, the pit stops are brief and the thrills are incessant.
But is that enough to fuel a 156-minute movie? Well, adrenaline junkies, Formula One enthusiasts and Brad Pitt fans will have nothing but admiration for an action-packed movie that celebrates one of the world's most elite sporting disciplines.
But even those that aren't instantly drawn by filmmaking craftsmanship, phenomenal camerawork and the spectacle of rubber hitting asphalt might find enough in this well-orchestrated mix to keep them glued to their seats.
However, beyond the visceral and the cursorily thrilling, and in terms of the deeper allure of cinema and the heft of genuinely affecting human drama, F1 stops short of perfection. It encounters many a bump on its way to an exciting, if predictable, crescendo driven by the lead actor and a supporting cast that more than just supports the endeavour.
Kosinski, like the two dependable pivots he employs, is himself no pushover in the game of flying on the wings of star power and narrative potency. He recently harnessed Top Gun and Tom Cruise, two other failsafe American showbiz forces, with memorable success.
His latest outing, too, has plenty of gas in the tank. It is another matter that all of it isn't fully utilised. Its engines, powered by the team of technicians behind Top Gun: Maverick, roar with intent and whip up a storm.
F1 is fast-paced and packed with motor racing action staged on actual Formula One circuits. That allows for Formula One stars (Lewis Hamilton, who is one of the producers of the film, Fernando Alonso, and even Mercedes team principal and CEO Toto Wolff, among others) to put in unheralded appearances to enhance the authenticity of the setting.
The races are mounted and captured with exceptional panache. The machines are centrestage and so are the faces of Pitt and Damson Idris (cast as a hotshot rookie racer), starkly delineated under their visors. Every shift in mood and intent is captured minutely in the clash of wills.
The resolve in the drivers' eyes, the lines on their foreheads, the sweat on their eyebrows and the twitches on their countenances are on full view as sparks fly between a veteran racer and a gifted newcomer until the two men learn to place teamwork above personal ambition.
F1 transports us into the very heart of the world of Formula One. Cinematographer Claudio Miranda (Kosinski's regular collaborator, Oscar winner for Life of Pi and DOP on David Fincher's Brad Pitt starrer The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in which the star aged in reverse) delivers the goods on all fronts.
With the frames composed and delivered to the accompaniment of Hans Zimmer's immersive and muscular score, F1 has no dearth of exhilaration.
Pitt dives headlong into the enterprise and etches a believable, if somewhat facile, portrait of a man doing all he can to make up for a lost time. Javier Bardem exudes the sort of magnetism that holds its own against Pitt's.
Kosinski, on his part, makes a fair fist of striking a balance between Pitt's compelling presence and the demands of the script (written by Ehren Kruger). But it is the structure and purpose of the movie - F1 is made in collaboration with FIA, the governing body of Formula One - that undermines it.
This is a film that promotes a 'product' that has been around for three quarters of a century. Anything with that kind of history is bound to have had a chequered existence. But F1 has no space for a layered investigation into the spills and pitfalls that no international sport can be free from.
Notwithstanding the impressive behind-the-scene skills that have gone into its making, F1 has a single dimension. Not all the kinesis and effervescence that its packs can pull it out of its formulaic arc. It feels all too pat and oddly low on dramatic spin.
But one thing that F1 certainly isn't is stodgy. It pulsates with energy, and frequently hits top gear and generates speed and heat in abundance. It centres on a washed-up car racer Sonny Hayes (Pitt), whose Formula One career is cut short by an accident that continues to haunt him three decades on.
With his dream of becoming a star stymied, he is a driver-for hire resigned to his fate. He takes part in races on obscure dirt tracks and speedways. He moves from venue to venue in his camper van, does odd jobs, gambles, drives a cab and endures three failed marriages.
When all doors appear to be shut, an old mate, Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), now the owner of a struggling Formula One outfit, throws Sonny a lifeline - a spot on the team alongside Joshua Pierce (Damson Idris). His brief is to break APXGP's losing streak.
While the competition on the circuit is stiff, the conflict within Sonny does not acquire much depth or range. His past is well behind him, his inner demons have been tamed and he has rid himself of the chinks that once proved costly.
So, when Sonny Hayes strides out to grab his second chance, his confidence levels are already so high that nothing he does over a series of races that offer him a shot at redemption takes the audience by any sort of surprise.
Some romance is thrown in to break the monotony. Sonny hooks up with the team's technical director Kate (Kerry Condon). The latter raises the hope of some gender parity in a male-dominated world, but she isn't allowed to go the distance.
F1 possesses a zippy, snappy rhythm but runs a touch ragged when the star of the show, effective as he is as the fulcrum of the project, tends to hog all the limelight. That, thankfully, isn't as frequent as it would have been had Kosinski not known how to skirt around the obstacle when it matters.
The ride that F1 delivers is scintillating enough but overall impact of the film is a bit like the crashes that it is littered with - spectacular but inert.