Review: 'Gran Turismo' is a sports drama filled with glitz and advertising, with David Harbour as its emotional engine

Somewhere amid the automobile-shaped billboards whizzing around in “Gran Turismo,” burning the Nissan and PlayStation logos into the viewer’s retinas, there’s a well-constructed inspirational sports drama and a half-decent video game movie.

Director Neill Blomkamp (“District 9,” “Chappie”) starts by informing us that the Japanese game designer Kazunori Yamauchi had a dream to create the most realistic racing simulator ever made — and the result was “Gran Turismo.” Millions, we’re told, play the simulator around the world.

It’s that market that Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom), a marketing executive at Nissan’s UK division, wants to tap into. His proposal to the suits from Tokyo: Find the best “Gran Turismo” players from around the world, and train them to race with real cars on real tracks for Nissan’s racing team. Improbably, the bosses give Danny’s pitch the green light.

An online competition helps Danny find the best GT racers around the world. The one the movie focuses on is Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe), a teen in Cardiff, Wales, whose dreams of becoming a race driver are laughed off by his father, Steve (Djimon Hounsou), an ex-footballer who is focused on his older son Coby (Daniel Puig), an up-and-coming soccer player. (Jann’s mum is played by Geri Halliwell Horner, if case you’re wondering what happens to ex-Spice Girls: They are saddled with thankless roles in male-dominated movies.)

While Danny assembles the 10 best GT racers and brings them to Nissan’s training camp, he has to find a coach who can turn these chair-bound gamers into real drivers. The reluctant coach is Jack Salter (David Harbour), who pours cold water on Danny’s and the young racers’ hopes. 

Of course, what comes next is the requisite training montage, somewhere between “Remember the Titans” and “An Officer and a Gentleman,” with the field of 10 winnowed down to five in short order. Jann barely makes the cut, but is more determined to show Jack, his dad, and the world that he’s got what it takes to race.

Blomkamp takes the tag-teamed script — written by Jason Hall (“American Sniper”) and Zach Baylin (“King Richard”), with story credit to Hall and Alex Tse — and creates a lucid, fast-paced story that hits all the right buttons of the underdog sports story. He also incorporates the mechanics of the Gran Turismo game, like the way the graphics hover over Jann’s car to show us his position in the race.

The chief joy derived in “Gran Turismo,” — aside from the delight Blomkamp shows in editing together tight racing sequences — is watching Harbour tear through all the gruff-but-lovable coaching cliches and find the battered, vulnerable heart within. For all the forced product placement and corporate sucking up, Harbour gives the movie a few dollops of genuine humanity.

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‘Gran Turismo’

★★★

Opens Friday, August 25, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for intense action and some strong language. Running time: 135 minutes.