Fast Girls Review

I don’t know if you’ve heard this, but apparently the Olympic Games are coming to London this summer. I know right! You’d think someone would have mentioned this. Apparently the producers of Adulthood and The Iron Lady knew as Fast Girls, a good-natured, feel good sports drama set in the world of athletics couldn’t coincide better with the Olympics if they convinced Danny Boyle to screen it at the opening ceremony.

Co-written by and co-starring Noel Clarke, Fast Girlsfollows the journey of Shania (Being Human’s Lenora Crichlow), a young woman from a poor background who runs a mean hundred metres. Her prowess gets her into the GB squad and she’s soon put onto Coach Clarke’s relay team too. There she comes to meet her rival, the privileged Lisa (Lily James), with whom her competitiveness threatens to disrupt both her and her team’s chances of success. Can the girls put their differences aside to both grow as people and bring home Gold medals for Blighty?

It’s often said that there is only one sports film and it goes something like this: an unlikely athlete or team get the chance to compete on a great stage in pursuit of sporting glory and/or personal redemption. Things will go well initially, often under the tutelage of an inspiring coach until something goes terribly wrong towards the end of the second act, often at the hands of an unpleasant rival. Things look bleak, but in the end, the underdog always wins (or is finally accepted by their peers, as in the case of the ultimate sports movie, Cool Runnings).

Fast Girls follows this formula doggedly. It’s also arguably trite, too clean cut and lacks depth in its handling of the difference in the socio-economic backgrounds of its characters and its happy-clappy ‘teamwork solves all problems’ philosophy wears a little thin. Having said all that, I really loved Fast Girls. Sure, it’s by no means particularly original (Bend it Like Beckham is an obvious reference point) and nor does it contain any great depths. It is however excellently shot and directed, perfectly orchestrates its emotional high and low points and is held together brilliantly by its fantastic cast. Crichlow and James’s characters are fairly archetypical but the young actors give life to their somewhat slightly written roles and are a joy to watch. The support cast (including Rupert Graves, Bradley James, Philip Davis) are also excellent, especially the relative unknowns and/or TV actors, Lorraine Burroughs, Lashana Lynch and Hannah Frankson who play Shania’s teammates.

Most of all though, it’s refreshing to watch a film in which women dominate the narrative (Fast Girls passes the Bechdel Testwith flying colours). In a world where the walls of multiplexes practically drip with testosterone and female presence is reduced to little more than a pair of leather-clad arse cheeks, Fast Girls will hopefully provide young women (and men) in the audience with characters they can relate to, be engaged and even inspired by. The other stand out part of the film was its superbly composed final race. If it doesn’t leave you with a tear in your eye, a stirring in your stomach or goose bumps on your arms, you need to ask your manufacturer to install an empathy and catharsis upgrade to your system, you emotionless man-droid.

In the face of millions of pounds splurged from the public purse, ridiculously ramped up security initiatives and a weight on London’s transport network like nothing ever seen before, Fast Girls could quite easily be the best thing the Olympic Games have brought about this summer.