‘Rush’

In an early scene of Ron Howard’s newest film “Rush,” English Formula One racer James Hunt describes his vehicle as a “little coffin surrounded by high-octane fuel.” What compels Hunt or any race car driver to want to drive up to 170 miles per hour while squeezed inside of a little coffin, all the while and face the possibility of death at any turn? Is there fear?

It turns out, unapparent as it may be, there is fear. And ego, which perhaps is the driving force behind Peter Morgan’s screenplay about a dynamic rivalry that once existed between Hunt and another Formula One racer, Austrian Nikki Lauda, two men who were far from the same, and yet shared so much of their careers and lives together on and off of the race track.

Chris Hemsworth plays Hunt, a playboy party animal whose fervor for the thrill of racing toward potential doom drives him into the arms of the sport. The ecstasy he feels while moving at such high speeds trumps nearly everything else in his life, including his short-lived marriage to Suzy Miller (Olivia Wilde), and when he is not doing the thing he loves most, he loses his sense of purpose.

Lauda (Daniel Bruhl), on the other hand, drives for different reasons altogether. He comes from a wealthy family, and when his father tells him he can either join the family business or get out, Lauda hits the highway and doesn’t look back. But where Hunt ‘s ego rests in the speed and fury of the race, Lauda’s is geared more toward a more intellectual approach to the sport, as he buys he way into sponsorship and, in following one race (which he loses to Hunt), tattles on Hunt non-regulation sized car.

It seems like a cheap shot considering the car only misses regulation size by several eights of an inch, but Lauda has standards and believes in the rules of the game. In fact, despite his reckless hunger for speed, a troubled personal life and, at times, a nasty temper, Hunt’s comes off as a more dignified strategy. So much so that when Lauda, fearful for his own safety, calls for a vote to cancel a race due to a rainstorm and a slick track, no one believes him. They think he just wants to remain ahead in points.

Lauda’s fears come true in a scene of astonishing realism, in which he loses control of his car, crashes is engulfed in flames for what seems like ages, before he is rescued. His life is changed forever.

This is a pivotal scene of the film, and words can’t describe the intensity of Ron Howard’s direction, Anthony Dod Mantle’s cinematography and Hans Zimmer’s score. Packaged together, these allow for a thoroughly engrossing and blood-pumping series of racing scenes in which minimal CGI and maximum practical stunt driving was used, pushing the action toward its highest potential.

And then there is Peter Morgan’s screenplay, another tour de force that almost matches Morgan and Howard’s last collaboration, “Frost/Nixon,” which in its own way was about the same thing as “Rush” is. In both films, Morgan pierces and explores the egos of its two lead characters, and like journalist David Frost and US President Richard Nixon, Hunt and Lauda share a complex rivalry cum friendship that binds them together even as their lives eventually go into different directions.

As Hunt, Hemsworth, always enjoyable, really does his best work yet. So does Bruhl, whose breakout role in “Goodbye Lenin!” led to his discovery by Quentin Tarantino and… the rest I history. He is one of the most gifted actors working today, the kind of actor who instantly catches your attention somehow just by appearing on screen.

The way these two actors manage to develop this relationship on screen is what elevates “Rush” above most other racing genre movies. When you care about the people behind the wheel, it makes a difference and, strangely enough, you begin to understand why it is they do what they do.

★★★ 1/2 (out of 4)