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The story is great but the movie itself is a bit rough. Directed by a TV director, it often seems rough in its continuity. But in spite of that it is a very worthwhile movie of a great true story.
Jonny Lee Miller is Graeme Obree, Glasgow road biker who finds the reality of making ends meet. His bicycle shop is not making money so he is forced to close it and work as a bike messenger. (Not so coincidentally my oldest son, a competitive biker in his 20s in the late 1990s also worked as a bike messenger in a large city.)
Obree had some difficulties as a boy, mainly because his dad was in law enforcement. Some of the older, larger bullies who had shady dads would abuse young Obree, and in one scene holding him down as they urinated on him. But he never told on them, instead held it inside which contributed to his bouts of depression as an adult.
Billy Boyd of 'LOTR' fame plays fellow bike messenger Malky, who becomes Obree's manager when Obree decides to break the records for the one-hour interval around a velodrome track. This was in 1993/1994 and Obree, inspired from different sources, designs and builds his own bike with radical new features.
A good movie about the triumph of the human spirit amidst difficulty and controversy.
score /10
TxMike 28 January 2008
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1809478/ |
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24-2-2021 12:07:11