Steineded How sad is this?

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

ciscokid1970 If you are a fan of cycling or a fan of underdog movies...this movie is for you. This is a TRUE story of Graeme Obree, cyclist from Scotland who had very little funding, built his own bike and redefined the methods for time trial cyclists.This movie is safe for all ages and may serve as inspirational to some people.The movie does a pretty good depiction of young Graeme life. Acting was good without being too mushy for a sports movie. Plot could have been trimmed a little, but no major complaints. The movie looks like it was filmed for UK TV so it does not have the polish big movies may have...but does not take away from the goal of the movie.The only real complaints I had about the movie was that they did not use an accurate replica of his bicycle.Rent this movie with Breaking Away and American Flyers to prep yourself before July's start of the Tour De France...Go LANCE ARMSTRONG!

TxMike The story is great but the movie itself is a bit rough. Directed by a TV director, it often seems rough in its continuity. But in spite of that it is a very worthwhile movie of a great true story.Jonny Lee Miller is Graeme Obree, Glasgow road biker who finds the reality of making ends meet. His bicycle shop is not making money so he is forced to close it and work as a bike messenger. (Not so coincidentally my oldest son, a competitive biker in his 20s in the late 1990s also worked as a bike messenger in a large city.) Obree had some difficulties as a boy, mainly because his dad was in law enforcement. Some of the older, larger bullies who had shady dads would abuse young Obree, and in one scene holding him down as they urinated on him. But he never told on them, instead held it inside which contributed to his bouts of depression as an adult. Billy Boyd of 'LOTR' fame plays fellow bike messenger Malky, who becomes Obree's manager when Obree decides to break the records for the one-hour interval around a velodrome track. This was in 1993/1994 and Obree, inspired from different sources, designs and builds his own bike with radical new features. A good movie about the triumph of the human spirit amidst difficulty and controversy.

paul2001sw-1 The story of Graeme Obree, an essentially amateur cyclist who competed with the best, is quite remarkable, but that's not to say it makes for a great film. The narrative arc of this movie is dreadfully predictable, and attempts to make play from Obree's struggles with depression are limited by the cartoonish way in which the officials with whom he was often in conflict are depicted. Perhaps the real problem is that Obree is the sort of hero who fits the Scottish self-image too well, the plucky underdog (celebrated in the unimaginative title of this movie) is just too comfortable a figure (in terms of how he fits with how the Scots would like to see themselves); there's no 'Trainspotting'-style iconoclasm here. Maybe it would have been better to make a documentary; the details of how Obree fashioned a competitive bike with his own hands (and to his own, revolutionary design) are fascinating - but not the stuff the fiction, and told as a drama, the result is a little dull.

Chris Murphy What I found most enjoyable about this film is the way it straddles the sport-biopic genres. It maintains the acute acting and psychological fullness of a biopic, aided by a fantastic performance by Miller, while being in keeping with the Hollywood highs and lows aspects of great sports movies.Those not interested in sport should not be put off by thinking this will be a typically superficial or one dimensional sports film. But those sporty types will also find plenty to satisfy them.As a big cycling fan I was already well aware of the Obree story and I can assure people that is every bit as incredible if not more so than is shown in the film. Naturally the constraints of a film mean that the Obree story is cut short and we don't see how the Superman position was banned or Obree's subsequent depressions especially after his brother died (indeed his brother is completely missing from the film). But by choosing to limit the time scale it describes it allows time for greater detail particularly in investigated his relationship with the priest and Obree's wife.Equally the film doesn't embellish the truth a great deal in order to increase the drama. Indeed the world record attempts are incredibly understated, as they should be. Obree was never well known in Britain despite being very popular on the continent. As a result the film isn't filled with cheering crowds but rather focuses the isolation he experienced within Scotland in spite of his amazing achievements.