Director: Stephen Frears
Cast: Ben Foster, Chris O'Dowd, Lee Pace, Dustin Hoffman and Jesse Plemons.
The rise and fall of Lance Armstrong could also be another title of this film. For those who don't know who Lance Armstrong is and what he has did, he was once the 7 time winner of the most grueling bike race in the world, The Tour de France. He survived cancer and became an icon and one of the most famous and rich sporting personalities on the planet. The only problem is that he cheated throughout his entire career using the most sophisticated blood doping program known to man.
The film is based on the book 'Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong' by writer David Walsh. David Walsh played here by Chris O'Dowd, was the journalist whose pursuit of the truth was a key factor in the downfall of the one time King of cycling. O' Dowd plays down his normal funny bones and portrays Walsh as the everyman and hero of the story. He is convincing but sadly is given little to do in order to spread his acting wings.
Ben Foster plays Lance. Foster is normally that guy who is great in that movie that you can't remember the name of and didn't really like. He embodies Armstrong mind, body and soul. To play the part, Foster trained with the Garmin pro-cycling team. He watched and studied hours of archive footage of Armstrong competing. He also took performance-enhancing drugs (hopefully under watchful eyes) to fully become the man. The results are compelling and highly convincing. It's a shame that the rest of the film doesn't quite match Ben Foster's commitment and performance.
Guillaume Canet plays team doctor Michele Ferrari. He was the brains behind the doping program who turned normal and average cyclists into suped-up winning machines. Canet seems to be having fun as Ferrari but his Italian accent sometimes verges on the wrong side of good.
Breaking Bad's Jesse Plemons is Floyd Landis, one time teammate and future winner of the tour. Plemons not only looks identical to Landis but is the heartbeat of the second half the film. His regrets, doubts and disillusion to the blood doping program becomes entangled with Fosters Armstrong's bullying, who is convinced that doping is the only way to win. This is an interesting relationship to watch develop.
The amount of detail the filmmakers have gone into is tremendous. From the bikes to the team briefings and news conferences. Everything cuts in perfectly with the original footage which is spread throughout. Sometimes it is not clear which is which, this is a great testament to the film.
The script by Frears and John Hodge is fine but is doesn't really delve deep enough and improve upon on the brilliant documentary 'The Armstrong Lie' by Alex Gibney in 2013. Key moments are mentioned and shown like witnesses Besty Andreu and the team physio Emma O'Reilly, but these are skipped over quickly with little thought. The last 10 minutes feels rushed. Most people know the outcome of Armstrong but it would have been nice to enjoy and watch the compulsive liar and cheat squirm more.
The Program has a excellent central performance at the heart of it, couple this with strong visuals and a script which just about informs. It also does keep you engaged for the runtime. It's just a shame the film assumes previous knowledge before watching the film to really get the best out of it.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
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