Film review - Senna

I have no interest in any sport, yet still found this film to be absolutely gripping from beginning to end. Emotional, exciting, infuriating, and dramatic. Ayrton Senna makes for a hugely charismatic and likeable lead, and his enthusiasm for the sport (and life) is infectious. Heroes and villains are drawn, and the film makes no attempt to hide whose side it is on (if anything, Formula 1 itself is the biggest villain, its politics oddly reminiscent of the current FIFA situation). However, during the lead-up to the final act, Senna's enthusiasm evaporates, and that smiley lead character disappears. He is replaced by an unhappy, stressed, rapidly-ageing man who is losing his faith in the vehicle he has always understood, as it becomes corrupted by technology. The dramatic conclusion to the story is sensitively handled, and delivered in a way that is surprisingly un-dramatic, but still hits an emotional punch.