Brad Pitt is not someone that I am hankering to have dinner with, and his love life seems messy at best, but I have enjoyed him as an actor over the years, and this is no exception.
Sonny Hayes was a Formula One driver with talent and the right amount of nerves of steel and talent to make it big, until he was in a devestating accident that still haunts him. After that he quit, and while he races often, it is never with an eye to join a team and get back in the game.
That is up until he’s recruited by his former rival Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) to make one last run at it. With most of the racing season finished, Ruben’s ramshackle APXGP racing team hasn’t earned a point because their talented but conceited young driver Joshua Pearce lacks the experience necessary to grind out wins. His manager is more of a hindrance than a help to him, and he is irritatingly juvenile about his role in the woes of the team. Even worse, their cars, designed by their technical director Kate McKenna, lack innovation and endurance and can’t compete with the likes of Ferrari and McLaren. Ruben hopes Sonny can shape up APXGP and Joshua enough to eke out one win out of the team’s final nine races, thereby holding off squeamish investors from taking away Ruben’s ownership.
Sonny does several things besides driving like a crazy man. He thinks outside the box as a driver and he gets the team to start thinking that way too. He builds teamwork where it didn't exist before he got there, and he gives Kate the driver input on her car that help her to make it better.
It is a feel good race movie that even if you have zero interest in Formula One specifically or racing in general, it is enjoyable.
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