What to Watch: Chasing Death in Chris Hemsworth’s Racing Thriller ‘Rush’

I’ll readily admit that I’m not in any way shape or form even the most remotely interested in racing of any kind, especially motorsport. The idea of watching cars driving around in circles or along closed city circuits about as fun to sit through as, well, something really boring. However, I do like movies about racing, which is really weird I know, but what can you do?

Director Ron Howard‘s 2013 take on the sport is a fast paced (obviously) look under the hood of Formula 1 racing called Rush, and it is indeed that, a terrific rush to watch, led by two incredibly dynamic performances from Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl. They are not only the two main characters of the show, they are the very embodiment of two very distinct personalities that rule the track and, perhaps more importantly, the public appearance of drivers altogether.

Hemsworth, who you’ll no doubt know is most known for his take as Thor in the Marvel films, and here, as real life drive James Hunt is just about the same character, which works surprisingly well. Hunt is a bigger than life figure who is brash, excessive, hot-headed, and of course looks like an Old Norse god, like say, Thor. Women love him, men admire him, and the press adore him. He wins because he takes chances, loves the thrill of it and lives for the near-death ride.

Brühl is Niki Lauda, another real-life racer with a different approach, a technical master who fully understands the mechanics of the vehicles he drives, and while no less ruthless on the pavement, is less about the chance of it all than the precision it takes in driving the finish line. He has few friends, unappealing to most women, and remains a stoic outsider. All of which he not only wants but knows he needs to be successful.

Both are highly competitive and ferocious in their pursuit to win, and of course, find the other in the way of that quest. They meet on the track and immediately, a heated relationship is born, one that on the surface appears explosive and ignited by their passions, though under is fed by mutual respect.

This film is made great fun (and even suspenseful) by Howard’s breathtaking attention to detail while these men are behind the wheel. Truly, there are several awe-inspiring moments of highly dramatic clashes on the track which feature some of the best on-screen racing there has ever been, Howard reminding us that the sport for those who are drawn to it, has plenty to offer for entertainment, but is the drivers that make the difference.

Perhaps needed but ultimately a bit of setback for me in all this is the theatrics of it all, the sense that most of everything we see is indeed overblown and compressed. Again, that’s a necessary part of the art in movies like this, telling the truth in a roundabout way, emphasis on conflict and resolution rather than greater attention to the characters development than their impact on the story.

We do get some of that, and I don’t mean to say we don’t get a sense of who these driving talents are or what motivates them, only that, just like the cars they drive in, they flash by in a blur to get us to the next one. But hey, that’s not at all bad in Howard’s skillful storytelling style and Hemsworth and Brühl’s entertaining portrayals. In fact, it is the charged and often deeply respectful faux hate between Hunt and Lauda that are the real rush behind the title. I absolutely love the banter and seemingly minor back and forths between them when they’re out of their cars.

Women have a role in all this as well, even as they seem peripheral for most of it. Hunt is a playboy, our introduction to him beat up after having an affair with another driver’s wife, meeting and then having sex with the nurse (Natalie Dormer) who tends to his wounds. Hunt eventually marries a model named Suzy Miller (Olivia Wilde), who it seems distracts his racing edge, but not for the reasons you think. Lauda as well finds a woman, Marlene (Alexandra Maria Lara), who as well seems to temper his ability to do what he does best, but it’s never made so transparent, which is the right choice. These are the only real subtleties to the story, and it works very well.

There’s a compassion to the way Howard delivers the story of these two drivers, creating a rivalry you expect but not at all the way you may think it plays out, made crystal clear when a reporter asks a question he shouldn’t in a press conference after Lauda makes a return to racing. Fast cars are the backbone of the story, but it is not the fabric that holds it all together, the energizing competitive partnership between these two men keeping it one of the best in the genre. It’s what to watch.