Racewalkers – Review

Van living Matt Mackenzie (Claydon) is living the big life as an umpire at little league after being a former #1 pick and major league player. His ex, Ava (Ricci), has moved on, but at least he gets to spend some time taking care of their still shared dog Jeffrey.

Meanwhile, athletic physiotherapist Will Lester (Moniz) works with his bronze medal winning cousin Kurt (Bryk) at a race-walking organization. They are working on getting the Olympic qualifier completed with their best runner, and Kurt’s son, Ched (Amell). Will contributes a presentation to the local racewalking board to improve performance of the walkers, by focusing on form instead of power.

This presentation does not sit well with his father Kurt, who doesn’t need anyone telling him what to do. Will is fired. As Will winds up bumping into Matt, as well as noticing his excellent walking form, maybe the pair can form a team and compete with the current power walker and best-named person ever, Ched. And what about the Olympics?!

Racewalkers is a good mixture of elements script wise as it includes a somewhat silly competitive focal point, which is also a real and tougher sport than it seems. It has strong comedic elements and a touch of drama driving the plot. Is it revelatory dialogue? No, but it’s good enough and certainly has a few unexpected joke deliveries. The characters are mostly genuine despite the silliness in the story, which helps ground the movie.

The script includes a bit of emotion along with a lot of ridiculous comedic elements. Jokes are all sorts of clever dialogue, dorky quips and also some more slapstick type shenanigans. It is mostly cohesive and has its charms. A low budget did not matter considering the subject matter and story at hand.

Acting is just fine and works pretty well for the silly and serious film. While this may sound like a ridiculous time or a farce or satire, somehow, it works as a decent drama as well as goofy comedy. It is definitely not as zany as most of the sports comedies out there, but it remains quite fun.

“Now I’m going to get on this Miata, you’re gonna take out your phone, and you’re going to shoot my coin purse.”