Daniel Bruhl's intelligent performance as Austrian race car driver Niki Lauda is about all there is to recommend in director Ron Howard's film about the rivalry between Lauda and English driver James Hunt (a preening Chris Hemsworth). Bruhl's focused, steel-eyed stare and effortlessly executed diction is filled with a sly sense of irony and sets apart what could have been a routine impersonation of a cold, clipped Germanic workhorse. After all these years, Howard still can't figure out how to deliver action without having to explain it to you and, as such, relies heavily on screenwriter Peter Morgan's heavy-handed exposition to tell you what you need to know. Morgan accomplishes this by having sportscasters yell into microphones about how the action taking place is so exciting; the result is condescending. Other than Bruhl, there isn't much else to recommend, with a couple of Howard's collaborators worth noting, cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle and composer Hans Zimmer, turning in lesser work than they are capable of. Being a racing movie, it's edited within an inch of its life by longtime Howard colleagues Dan Hanley and Mike Hill; but their work is at least clean enough that you can reasonably follow along. Which is all Howard requires from you.
