

- The art of racing in the rain movie#
- The art of racing in the rain driver#
- The art of racing in the rain tv#
Just like any other cinematic template, the key is in how it’s executed. Yet as opposed to that show, which embraces its inner (and outer) melodrama, The Art of Racing in the Rain manages to rise above the genre’s confines through three genuine and refreshing additions while serving as a reminder that there’s nothing wrong with melodrama in and of itself. As an actor, Ventimiglia possesses a solemn but determined aura around him that here, as in This is Us, suits the genre.
The art of racing in the rain driver#
(From that perspective, the casting of Milo Ventimiglia from This Is Us seems like supporting evidence.) As Denny, an exceptional racecar driver who’s hit with one heartbreaking and instantly relatable conflict after another, he spends a decade struggling to raise a family and pursue his career against seemingly insurmountable odds.

The art of racing in the rain movie#
It’s a dog’s world, this movie shows us, and we’re lucky just to drive in it.Based on its narrative beats, a strictly superficial reading of The Art of Racing in the Rain could easily frame it as nothing but a shameless melodrama with the sole mission of jerking many a tear from its audience through an endless pounding of manufactured tragedy for its protagonist. Ultimately, The Art of Racing in the Rain has a dog’s pure-heartedness that manages to beat strongly despite generic direction, milquetoast performances, and twelve cubic tons of Costner voiceover. It’s the kind of film Kirk Cameron might make if he were Buddhist and his movies were considerably less awful. Nevertheless, the film has a pleasingly wholesome quality reminiscent of Christian movies, even while its message-which focuses heavily on reincarnation-is decidedly Eastern.

The art of racing in the rain tv#
There is also something distinctly off-putting and a little lazy about the way Enzo’s inner life is entirely anthropomorphized, as if the only things those lesser creatures could possibly dream of is watching TV (in addition to car races and documentaries, Enzo is a big Law & Order fan) and driving around in circles on the track. With a soundtrack thick with George Harrison and Crosby, Stills & Nash-and its all-consuming passion for everything Ferrari- The Art of Racing in The Rain makes absolutely clear its Baby boomer roots. This includes Ventimiglia, who seems perpetually unsure of what to do with the heightened emotionality the melodramatic turn of events calls for, and Amanda Seyfried, who plays the love of his life with a blandly maternal sweetness. Played by a pair of Golden Retrievers that represent Enzo in his youth and his dotage, the canine at the center of the story is engaging and emotive in a manner that his human costars generally are not. After awhile, you begin to give in to both it and Enzo’s non-threatening, well-meaning pop philosophy, with its talk of rebirth and its absurdly extended metaphors about how car racing can tell you everything you need to know about coping with unexpected difficulties and heartbreaks.Īfter having to contend with a summer’s worth of CGI critters-whether it was The Lion King’s menagerie of blank-eyed fakes or the new Dora the Explorer movie’s sugared-up cartoon of a monkey Boots- The Art of Racing in The Rain’s saving grace is just how good it feels to hang out at the movies with a real-life animal. Eventually though, Costner’s incessant narration lulls you into submission-like a bedside story or an IV drip of a low grade narcotic.
