Review: Gran Turismo – The Heart of Racing

Among the various PlayStation franchises that gamers have loved playing over the years, Gran Turismo is one of the biggest. The video game series focuses on professional racing and the feeling of getting behind the wheel of a car, with a big emphasis on the realism of driving any car. For some, it’s one of the best driving game series ever made because of that. So how do you make a feature-length movie about something like that? That’s where the Gran Turismo movie gets very clever about it. It’s a movie that takes the concept of the game and blends it together with a story that gets into the heart of driving as a professional racer.

Gran Turismo is based on the true events of a young kid who loved playing the Gran Turismo video game and went on to become a professional race car driver on the international circuit. While there are some exaggerations of the real-life events of Jann Mardenborough, the core ideas from the game complement emotion of the drama. Jann Mardenborough is a young man who joins a Gran Turismo video game competition, hosted by PlayStation and sponsored by Nissan. The grand prize is the chance to join a race camp and be chosen for a sponsorship deal to become a real racecar driver, traveling the world and competing in races under the Nissan brand. When Jann moves ahead and joins the racing world, the competition is much more than he realized, with the consequences of failing on the track being much harsher than failing in the game.

What makes Gran Turismo successful is how it not only has a reverence for the game it’s based on, but it finds interesting ways to highlight aspects of racing that are a big part of the games themselves. And yet it doesn’t go too far to become too complicated or cheesy to lose out on why the deeper parts of racing are so appealing. When Jann is set to compete online in Gran Turismo to join the race camp, the movie doesn’t go too far in showing that fans of the game are completely detached from the reality of racing real cars. Everyone is a fan of racing, even though they come from very different worlds. The big portions of the film emotionally are when multiple people try to find common ground through their love for racing despite the friction of one side believing the others don’t know enough about it.

The races themselves are a real treat to watch, even if you aren’t a fan of racing as a sport. The drama between drivers keeps things moving at a good pace, with a lot of great shots in and outside of the cockpit. The sense of speed and power that every vehicle has is made very apparent, especially when things go awry and trouble shows up for everyone. A lot of the action done with racecars was done with the real-life Jann Mardenborough as a stunt driver, so how Jan’s car moves in the movie is as close as possible to how things may have gone in real life. It adds an extra layer of heart and authenticity that feels right for fans of the games and fans of racing.

Although most of the cast recedes into the background, the few standouts in Gran Turismo are Archie Madekwe and David Harbour, who play Jann Mardenborough and Jack Salter respectively. The interactions the two of them have after meeting are great, with a lot of witty dialogue and emotional moments that play off great from one another.

Archie Madekwe plays a very lighthearted and borderline naïve Jann, who eventually grows tougher to the realities of racing when he goes pro. There’s a lot of good range of reactions and emotions from him that feel heartfelt, in both good and bad times during the film. David Harbour is the jaded, old-time driver who trains Jann with a harsh tone, but lightens up as things start to get better for Jan and Nissan.

Speaking of which, Orlando Bloom plays Danny Moore, the marketing executive that comes up with the competition for Nissan. Orlando’s character is based on the real-life GT Academy founder Darren Cox and is more present towards the beginning of the film than in the latter half. Orlando Bloom’s performance is good and has some funny moments here and there, but it’s not his performance that slows things down a bit. The conversations he has with Jann and Jack do get heavy when the stakes become severe, but it never feels as if things get super dire or critical throughout the movie. Nissan has a lot invested in Jann’s success throughout the story, but the pressure doesn’t always feel like it’s as mounted as they talk about in the movie. There are millions of dollars and reputations at stake for Danny, Jack, and Jann when they reach the pro circuit, so it feels like everyone should be a bit more stressed.

The only part of Gran Turismo that will make fans raise their eyebrows in confusion is a small scene where Jan and his friends are driving away from a police car. Gran Turismo was never a racing series that got into territory about street racing or evading the cops. That was something that games like Need for Speed or Midnight Club would explore more often.

So when Jann is driving away from the police and the movie displays a “Police Evaded” message as they’re laughing, it feels very out of place. Although it’s a funny moment that is added for drama, it’s also the only part where the movie goes a little too far and is unsuccessful. Most will be able to ignore it and move on, but it definitely stands out enough to be an issue.

Opposite of that, however, the movie has some great CGI effects that pay homage to the Gran Turismo games. When Jann is playing in his room and things go through a transformation into being on the track, it looks great. This plays up the theme of Gran Turismo feeling as if you’re getting behind the wheel of a real car, which is reinforced and revisited multiple times throughout the whole movie. There’s a full-circle moment where Jann ends up racing on one of the main tracks in his Gran Turismo game, where a similar version of the scene earlier plays out, but with a different context. For fans of the games, it will look very cool.

Gran Turismo has a lot of heart put into it. There’s a very real love for the PlayStation games and the sport of racing that is on full display. As a movie based on a video game property, this is a very different approach to adapting what people love about the games they play. It’s not a universe based on the content of the games but rather a story that takes the essence of the games and shows it in a way that anyone can get invested in. Even those who have never played a Gran Turismo game before, or know anything about racing, will find themselves enjoying what the Gran Turismo movie brings to the table.

What do you think about the Gran Turismo movie? Are you a fan of racing or have you played any of the Gran Turismo games before? Let us know your thoughts down below in the comment section!