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By Rich Heldenfels
Published on Thursday, May 08, 2008
The movie runs off the track when it deals with plot and ideas. The Wachowski brothers want to make Speed Racer into something deep and thoughtful as well as dazzling to the eye. But they are not the deep thinkers they imagine themselves to be; in fact, the thematic undercurrent in Speed Racer was done before, and better, in the James Caan version of Rollerball.
Speed Racer has a long history to draw on, starting in the '60s with a Japanese comic book called Pilot Ace, which led to the cartoon series Mach Go Go Go, which — dubbed into English — was known as Speed Racer.
The Wachowskis have drawn on the basic story from the original series, with some twists (and a considerable improvement on the old show's animation). Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch, Into the Wild) is a talented young auto driver working for the company run by his father (John Goodman). But there is a shadow over the Racers because of the alienation from the family and eventual death of Speed's older brother Rex (Scott Porter, Friday Night Lights).
Other issues face Speed. His success has gotten the attention of racing mogul Royalton (Roger Allam, V for Vendetta), who is determined to woo Speed to his company. And if wooing doesn't work, the mogul has other means. Then there's the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox, Lost), also great behind the wheel but with an air of menace.
Any time these and other characters are brought together in a race, they are part of a great spectacle. Cars speed, leap, smash, unveil weapons and fly, with a breakneck pace that might make you beg for the occasional freeze-frame to catch up.
But the movie falters when it comes to matters of plot and dialogue.
It has a cast that can handle heavy script lifting; in addition to the people mentioned, Susan Sarandon plays Speed's mother and Christina Ricci is Speed's girlfriend Trixie. Ricci especially steals every scene she is in.
But they and others are saddled by some awful lines. The movie is dragged down when it makes racing part of a larger scheme by big businesses willing to use all their economic might against the Racer family.
And it is far too long at two hours plus. It would have worked much better — especially for the children in the audience — at about 90 minutes; you can easily see the place where they could have ended it more quickly and efficiently.
The movie's struggle is that it is not content to be simply a good movie for kids. Oh, it wants to be that, so audiences are subjected to repeated interjections of Speed's younger brother Spritle (Paulie Litt) and his chimpanzee Chim-Chim. Believe me, they are even more annoying than in the old cartoon.
But it also wants to give adults something meaty: discussions of racing as religion, and racing as art, and the whole idea of Speed as an individual trying to thrive in a sport ruled by corporate interests. (Hence the Rollerball comparison.) And those scenes take away from the more basic pleasures of the film.
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal and in a blog at http://www.ohio.com. You can find more columns, questions and answers at http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/heldenfels.
The movie runs off the track when it deals with plot and ideas. The Wachowski brothers want to make Speed Racer into something deep and thoughtful as well as dazzling to the eye. But they are not the deep thinkers they imagine themselves to be; in fact, the thematic undercurrent in Speed Racer was done before, and better, in the James Caan version of Rollerball.
Get the full article here.
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