Riccardo Scamarcio, greatest recognized in North America for enjoying the Italian crime lord in “John Wick: Chapter 2,” stars as Cesare Fiorio, the supervisor for Italy’s Crew Lancia, funded by Fiat. They’re below intense strain to win the WRC as a result of the occasion has all the time been referred to as a terrific technique to take a look at after which promote new kinds of vehicles—however solely when a crew is victorious. Sadly, Crew Lancia has sat out the final two races, and Fiat’s most formidable competitor, Audi—led by Roland Gumpert (Daniel Brühl)—has extra funding and manpower, plus a technological edge: four-wheel drive vehicles which can be an awesome asset within the diversified terrain that WRC drivers journey by means of. However there is not sufficient time, cash, or technical capability to meet up with the Germans earlier than the sequence of races start, so Crew Lancia has to do the perfect it could possibly with what it has.
Lancia’s principal asset—in accordance with this movie, anyway—is Fiorio himself. As portrayed by Scamarcio, who additionally coproduced and cowrote the film, Fiorio is an intense, stoic obsessive whose life revolves round successful. He has a trickster’s instincts, and is sweet at devising on-the-spot options to seemingly irresolvable issues, corresponding to partially snow-covered roads (which might have put Lancia’s two-wheel drive vehicles at an obstacle) or the requirement that automobile producers coming into the WRC have 200 prototype vehicles available to qualify (Lancia solely has 103, and the race is going on the very subsequent day). Fiorio’s options are ingenious sufficient that it might be unsporting to disclose them right here. Suffice to say that he is the type of one who reads rulebooks fastidiously and notices what’s forbidden and what’s not talked about.
“Race for Glory” falters in executing the anticipated beats of a racing movie, corresponding to depicting the creation of a crew of quirky however passionate oddballs and serving to us perceive their psychologies. That is what you would possibly name the low-hanging fruit of style storytelling, from the sports activities image to the heist film, however a lot will get left on the vine right here.
Take the scene the place Fiorio goes searching for retired driver turned beekeeper Walter Röhrl (Volker Bruch) to get him on Crew Lancia. It is a good looking instance of tips on how to inform audiences what’s taking place with out merely telling them what’s taking place. The 2 have a whole dialog with out Fiorio particularly asking him to return out of retirement and be part of the crew, though they (and we) know that is the true level of the trade. However after that, we by no means get a way of whether or not the quietly flamboyant Röhrl (portrayed as kind of a Nineteen Seventies Robert Redford hotshot) is well worth the sum complete of his maddening eccentricities (corresponding to pausing mid-race to have a relaxed, prolonged dialog with a farmer). Nor will we get any perception into different odd elements of his methodology, corresponding to his refusal to take part in half of the rallies or his causes for doing one rally however not one other.