I normally don’t go for sports oriented movies but I love Johnny Lee Miller (Hackers, Trainspotting) and while I was growing up my father was big into bicycling. Not to this extent of course, but enough to be interesting to me. (I, however, took may years to learn how to ride a bike!)
This is a pretty typical guy-has-a-passion-and-overcomes-obsticals-to-succeed story, but it was still sweet and interesting to watch. This is the true story of Graeme Obree, a champion cyclist who rebuilt his bicycle into what today is a racing standard, and broke a few world records while he was at it. However, during his time, the cycling sports authorities kept making it as hard as possible for him to compete; they didn’t like his new ideas for frames and positions. For instance, at one point they say his seat is a few inches too close to the handlebars. So he cuts a piece of it off. Then they say he can’t ride on incomplete materials. His solution? A childs’ sized seat! Brilliant.
However, Obree fought his whole life against depression and, after an accident, physical health issues. At one point he almost bottoms out of a downward spiral and attempts suicide (failing) but fortunately he has a wonderful wife and baby who nurse him though the hard times and support him on his journey and though his passion. Not too much is said about the family but it’s clear he had an excellent support system. Billy Boyd (best known as Pippin in Lord of the Rings) plays Obree’s true friend and manager, Malky, and Brian Cox (Deadwood, and about a trillion other things) plays Douglas Baxter, Obree’s financial and moral supporter.
This movie shows a real, intriguing, kind, passionate human on a very basic human level. He battled not only the physical elements required for cycling but also mental illness to become one of the greatest cyclists of all time, and I admire him, and the movie for portraying the story well.
More: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472268/
