Review: 'Race' wins with emotional finish
Clarification: Avery Brundage was an official with the U.S. Olympic Committee in the era shown in the movie. He would later become president of the International Olympic Committee. An earlier version of this review misidentified his title at the time.
A couple surprising star turns in Race give justice to Jesse Owens’ running glory in the 1930s while also feeling timely with modern racial issues in the news.
Stephan James nicely carries the weight of an icon playing Owens in director Stephen Hopkins’ gripping biopic-esque movie (*** out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters). Arguably more impressive, though: Jason Sudeikis, the comedic actor and former Saturday Night Live mainstay who brings nuance, gravitas and a hint of snarky rebellion to Owens’ college coach and confidante Larry Snyder.
In lieu of a conventional true-life profile, Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse’s screenplay focuses on Owens’ halcyon years in the spotlight. The Cleveland kid leaves behind family, baby and girlfriend Ruth (Shanice Banton) to run at Ohio State, sets three world records and ties a fourth in a 1935 Big Ten track and field meet, and most notably goes to Berlin and the heart of Nazi country to bring back four gold medals from the 1936 Olympics.
Owens walks into the German Olympic stadium with a capacity crowd, and the audience sees the spectacle from his perspective. The movie's massive CGI crowd could have used some extra work, but Hopkins nonetheless creates an effective mood of cautious awe: James’ Owens silently wonders, as one would, about how he'll fare in front of a mostly Nazi crew in the audience, especially Adolf Hitler (Adrian Zwicker) and Joseph Goebbels (a quietly antagonistic Barnaby Metschurat).
But it’s the smaller moments in Owens’ life that come alive thanks to James’ strong performance as the reserved runner, who had to deal with hateful racism even in his own locker room but also questions of his ambition back home. “There’s no black or white. There’s only fast or slow,” Owens says of his running mind-set at the Olympics, encapsulating his primal need to beat feet and succeed but also escape from the unfriendly world and obstacles around him.
In Race, Owens' tale spins off a couple subplots that expand the story’s scope. As its main player prepares for the Olympics, the larger American contingent weighs a boycott due to the Nazis’ anti-Semitic and racist sentiments, with International Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage (Jeremy Irons) making overtures to Goebbels to work it all out. That works for the most part, though another side story of filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (Carice Van Houten) chronicling the Games and Owens’ victories there just distracts from the overall plot line.
More so than in his romantic relationships, Owens’ friendships dramatically showcase the heart of the runner, including his unexpected connection with German jumper Luz Long (David Kross) and his strong ties with Snyder, a former Olympic hopeful himself. He and Owens find a rhythm first as coach and student, then as struggling fathers and later as close friends, and James and Sudeikis themselves discover a fantastic dynamic between them that’s the highlight of Race.
Anybody who thought Sudeikis was all just sketch comedy and Horrible Bosses movies will be significantly wowed by his portrayal of a man who, like his team’s talented ringer, was colorblind when it wasn’t cool.
Race makes its title's double meaning all too clear, and at a time when the Oscars and movies, in general, struggle with finding racial balance, two guys of different skin colors coming together for some sports-movie magic is a fitting and truly welcoming lapping of the competition.