The Racer

Directed by Kieron J. Walsh, The Racer follows elite cyclist Dominique Chabol (Louis Talpe) as he and his team prepare for a series of pivotal races. Filmmaker Walsh, working from a script written with Ciaran Cassidy and Sean Cook, delivers a fairly standard drama that generally proves unable to elicit the viewer’s interest and enthusiasm, as The Race suffers from an arms-length atmosphere that’s compounded by the lack of an entry point for cycling neophytes (ie the heavy emphasis on the minutia of the characters’ exploits is rarely as compelling as Walsh has obviously intended). And although Talpe delivers a strong performance, Walsh’s ongoing difficulties in transforming Dominique into an engaging, three-dimensional protagonist perpetuate the picture’s less-than-enthralling feel – with the proliferation of tedious subplots, including a romance with the team doctor and a cheating scandal, doing little to alleviate the mostly underwhelming vibe. The presence of a few admittedly compelling sequences, coupled with a relatively exciting climactic stretch, ultimately ensures that The Race is, at the very least, watchable throughout, and yet one can’t help but wish that Walsh had taken a more innovative approach to what’s predominantly an exceedingly (and excessively) familiar story.

** out of ****