Gran Turismo: The real-life story of Jann Mardenborough has heart and speed

Super Mario Bros may be the highest-grossing picture of the year – with Barbie moving up fast on the Peach Circuit – but video-game adaptations remain a precarious enterprise. Gran Turismo, a spectacular new racing film from the Oscar-nominated writer and director Neill Blomkamp, wisely sidesteps the pitfalls of many dreadful screen outings (often from the perennial game-ruiner Uwe Boll) by finding a big-hearted human-interest story to better explore the racing environment.

That is just as well. Gran Turismo, the racing simulator that has sold more than 90 million copies since it was created by Kazunori Yamauchi in 1997, now boasts a record-breaking number of licensed reproductions of real-world vehicles. The plot, however, remains the same: drive!

The Gran Turismo franchise has so far spawned a feature documentary and various sponsorships with the car industry, the best-known of which is the GT Academy, a partnership with Nissan to find the best players in the world and give them a shot at real-world racing. Academy graduates who have gone on to compete in professional racing include Lucas Ordóñez, Jordan Tresson and Jann Mardenborough.

The latter provides the narrative engine for this winning family film. Archie Madekwe, the star of Midsommar and the incoming Saltburn, is hugely likable as Mardenborough, a Cardiff teenager who can’t quite persuade his professional-footballer dad (Djimon Housou) and concerned mum (Geri Halliwell) that he isn’t wasting his time playing games in his bedroom. And then he beats 90,000 PlayStation gamers and wins a chance to drive for Nissan at the Dubai 24 Hour race.

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Orlando Bloom’s Nissan executive and David Harbour’s trainer are the attendants to this Cinderella story. Blomkamp, who has displayed a knack for photorealistic effects and verité since his impactful debut feature, District 9, gets his groove back with first-person-view drones and an array of fast-moving cameras. Working with the cinematographer Jacques Jouffret, the South African auteur has crafted a thrilling, authentic spectacle that both deconstructs the speeding cars and allows viewers to swoop and skid around some of the planet’s best-known racetracks. Jann Mardenborough, a producer on the film, is also the stunt driver. Insert iconic Gran Turismo countdown noise here.

Gran Turismo is on general release