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Review:
 A
few decades back, a young director named Roger Donaldson caught
wind of a fellow named Burt Munro. Ol' Bert had, about five years
before, done something unbelievable: he'd broken the world's land
speed motorcycle record on a 1920 Indian Twin Scout. The people at
New Zealand television and Bert himself were fine with it, and
Donaldson made a documentary called “Offerings to the God of
Speed.” His career was launched.
He went on to make lots of major films, but the memory of his
first major work haunted him. He wanted to turn it into a real
movie. So, eventually, he did.
The film is as cute as a button. Burt Munro(Anthony Hopkins) is an
old duffer who likes to play with his ancient motorcycle at all
hours of the day and night. We meet him in front of his
teensy-weensy home at three in the morning and waking the
neighbors. He and little Tom(Aaron Murphy) from next door tinker
whenever they can. They're oh, so cute it's almost enough to make
you puke.
But it gets better it turns out that he has a girlfriend named
Fran(Annie Whittle) and the local biker club loves our hero to
bits and is trying to raise money to get him [he gets a mortgage
on his land] to the famous Bonneville salt flats in Utah to take
part in “speed week” where he can officially see how fast the ol'
machine'll go. But first he has to go across the pacific ocean and
go across the American West, where he meets all sorts of cute
people, from an affable transvestite (Chris Williams) working as a
hotel clerk, to a Hispanic used car salesman(Paul Rodriguez) and a
horny widow who lets him repair his trailer in exchange for a
little nookie (thus the PG-13 rating). Yes, it's all filler, but
it's cute.
Finally there's the time when he actually gets there, when he
discovers his machine won't qualify, and has to develop a fan club
to help him bend the rules a little. Yes, it all ends happily ever
after. After all, it's almost too saccharine for words. That's
ALMOST. It's worth a rental or a matinee for sure.
Eric Lurio
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