"Speed Racer" rolls out for its audience as a visual extravaganza, with sights, sounds, colors, and visual effects that are always interesting and sometimes breathtaking. The trouble is that directors Andy and Larry Wachowski, back at the helm for the first time since 2003, haven't thought things out much past this, and produce a film that is as stale in personality as it is captivating in look and sound.
And don't get me wrong, it all looks pretty cool. The Wachowskis have built themselves the ultimate visual candy store on this film-a green screen paradise where even their most unreasonable artistic appetite can be satisfied. And away they go, creating a world that I guess is supposed to represent a future (the filmmakers never specify the exact date) in which everything will exist in bright, flowery colors and everyone will be as good natured as if they had just stepped off the "Jetsons," which I'm sure will be slated for production as soon as "Speed Racer" has its moment in the limelight.
The film's visuals and the suspense they create are alone worth the price of admission (watch Speed Racer maneuver his car around the turns of Thunderhead raceway and try to disagree with me), but the Wachowskis pretty much stop there. There is nothing in this film on a narrative or character level that comes close to expressing the type of joy and excitement that the material demands. It feels like the filmmakers wanted to make something with the exuberance of "Spiderman," yet told their actors to handle the material as if it were O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night."
The story sure sounds like it could be fun: Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is a talented racecar driver ready to break into the big time. He lives with his Mom (Susan Sarandon), a sprightly homemaker; Pops (John Goodman), a grizzled mechanic; and his little brother Spritle (Pauly Litt) and pet chimpanzee Chim Chim (Kenzie and Willy), who the filmmakers accept as their only shot at comic relief, which is a real shame, because they aren't funny. Also apparently included in the family unit are the family mechanic Sparky (Kick Gurry) and Speed's lady friend Trixy (Christina Ricci), rounding out the extremely strange extended family situation in the Racer household.
It's a household that has seen its fair share of tragedy, since Speed's older brother Rex (Scott Porter), whom Speed idolized, died in the fiery car crash years ago-or did he?-under uncertain circumstances. After a brilliantly edited opening sequence explaining this backstory, we launch into the main story, which has the rich, evil industrialist Royalton (Roger Allam, as the yellow toothed villain) wooing Speed with lucrative offer and then swearing to destroy his family after the youngster decides to stay with Pops. Luckily, the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox, looking glad to be off the island) shows up to help out, as he and Speed fight to expose Royalton and save the fam.
All of this would be great if the Wachowskis or their actors worked to imbue the material with even half as much energy as the film's visuals possess. As it is, no one seems to know they are in a summer action movie.
Hirsch is trapped in the straight man role here, leaving his supporting cast to pick up the slack, but Goodman and Sarandon (both funny when they want to be) treat their roles with so much overblown solemnity that it's amazing no one told them they probably weren't going to get nominated for this film.
