In the early laps of “Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story,” you worry the film will be little more than a high-octane commercial for the long-running and much-beloved racing-simulation video game franchise for Sony’s Playstation platforms.
You hear talk of how there’d never been anything like “Gran Turismo” prior to its creation in 1997 by Polyphony Digital and of how nothing comes as close to re-creating the real racing experience.
That there’d be some of that, as well as the placement of Sony products within the frame, was baked into the equation.
Thankfully though, in the hands of “District 9” director Neill Blomkamp, “Gran Turismo” proves to be an engaging and fluid racing story — one, as its title would suggest, with a basis in reality.
It is a heavily dramatized telling of Jann Mardenborough’s fascinating tale.
The reasonably successful British driver emerged from the sim-racing world, which is remarkable even if you grasp just how sophisticated video games have become over the years.
When we are introduced to Jann (Archie Madekwe), he’s just gotten a new steering wheel for his home “Gran Turismo” setup — he also takes down other players at a nearby business — and brags to a friend that he’ll now be unstoppable.
His father, Steve (Djimon Hounsou) and his mother, Lesley, (onetime Spice Girls member Geri Halliwell Horner), worry about his future. His brother, Coby (Daniel Puig), is following his dream of competing in pro soccer, which is fine with Steve, a former footballer himself.
But Jann sees a gateway to a genuine career in racing when he’s selected to be part of a competition — the brainchild of Nissan marketing executive Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom) — to try to turn one great “GT” player into a real racer.
To get the go-ahead for the project from Nisson, Danny agrees to hire an expert to train the gamers to go from sitting at a screen to being behind an actual windshield. He’s turned down by several before he gets to a name far down his list, Jack Salter, next to which he’d written “NFW.”
Nevertheless, he visits Jack (David Harbour), a racer-turned-mechanic working on the team of a cocky young racer, Nicholas Capa (Josha Stradowski). Jack finds the idea extremely dangerous and wholly irresponsible and initially insists he’ll have nothing to do with it. After a clash with Nicholas, however, he realizes he wants even less to do with him.
At the launch of the tournament’s camp, Jack tells Jann and the other nine racer wannabes just how little shot he thinks any of them have to become a real driver, saying, among other things, that none of them understands the gravitational forces that will come at them and that none of them possesses the physical fitness required, causing a frustrated Danny to hang his head.
“Welcome,” Jack concludes.
Working from a screenplay by Jason Hall (“American Sniper”) and Zach Baylin (“Creed III”), Blomkamp manages to maintain tension well enough even as we know Jann will enjoy certain successes — qualifying for the tournament, winning the tournament, doing well enough in his initial races to become licensed and thus earning a contract from Nisson — that it’s all rather captivating.
Once Jann is a full-fledged racer, “Gran Turismo” is at its best, offering gripping racing sequences done with an ultra-modern flare and a mentor-student relationship between Jack and Jann that is quite satisfying.
As he has shown on the bizarre Apple TV+ drama “See,” Madekwe isn’t the most dynamic performer, but he infuses Jann with an interesting mix of earnestness, confidence and competitiveness.
And Harbour more than picks up any of the slack, the “Stranger Things” standout bringing the gift for humor he has shown in that Netflix hit series, as well as movies including 2021’s “Black Widow” and 2022’s “Violent Night,” along with the chops for the movie’s dramatic moments. Jack sees much of himself in Jann, and he wants the young driver to take a different route than he did years earlier.
Even as “Gran Turismo” underserves some story elements — racing rivalries with fellow gamer Matty Davis (Takehiro Hira of “Never Have I Ever”) and Nicholas and a romance with Maeve Courtier-Lilley’s Audrey feel like little more than afterthoughts — and hits on all the predictable racing-movie beats, it remains entertaining all the same.
As you’d expect from a movie inspired by a video game and made by the director of the aforementioned acclaimed 2009 science-fiction film “District 9,” as well as other sci-fi and supernatural efforts including 2013’s “Elysium,” “Gran Turismo” boasts some eye-popping visual effects and daring camera work. However, in Blomkamp’s hands, this never plays like an exercise in style over substance.
Even if it works as a commercial for the game series — we certainly won’t be surprised by a spike in sales — the movie is more than that.
‘Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story’
Where: Theaters.
When: Aug. 25.
Rated: PG-13 for intense action and some strong language.
Runtime: 2 hours, 15 minutes.
Stars (of four): 3.
