Fast Girls

You'd have to have been living under a rock on Mars to not realise that the Olympics are coming to London this summer. Companies worldwide are creating advertising campaigns around the Games and are keen to push their links with the event. Branded toilet brushes are now 'The Official Toilet Brush of the Games', whilst all manner of stationery has suddenly become 'Official Pencil Sharpener Supplier to London 2012'. It's getting a tad ridiculous. So, when a film came along about a team of British female athletes and their shot at the World Athletics Championships, I had to sigh. 'Here we go again with another sports film jumping on the Team GB bandwagon, with a plot about triumphing against the odds and using every narrative cliché in the well-worn book', I thought to myself. How wrong I was.

Fast Girls follows Shania Andrews (Lenora Crichlow), a street-wise athlete who makes it onto Team GB for the World Athletics Championships and develops a rivalry with her wealthy fellow team-mate Lisa (played by Lily James). How this rivalry works out, it has to be said, is about as predictable as England's performance at the Euros but it was still enjoyable to watch it play out. Character arcs could have been strengthened and, at times, some of the characters felt just a little two-dimensional and under-developed. This is no fault of the actors: each performance, especially Crichlow's, was both nuanced and balanced and had a real sense of realism. A script co-written by Brit film bad boy Noel Clarke (who also stars in the film as the GB coach) is light-hearted and contained just enough laughs to complement the drama and tension which was created, especially during the race sequences.

Now, those who know me will know that I find tax returns more interesting than any sporting event but I have to say that I was engrossed during the races. At several points during the film, I was acutely aware of my own heartbeat which felt as though I was running the race instead. The tight and energetic cinematography and the film's edgy soundtrack (which used urban pop and R&B tracks to great effect) certainly helped in this respect. Without giving away any spoilers, I'll just say that during the final scene of the film, I sat there with a smile on my face and felt genuinely uplifted. I know I sound quite pretentious and silly by saying that, but I really did. Even if you have – like me – no interest in sport, I defy you not to get just a little bit enthralled by the whole thing.

The cast trained for several months before shooting began to build up an athletic body and, without sounding weird, it certainly shows in the slow motion shots of their abs. To see a cast throw themselves totally in to the mindset and physicality of the characters they were playing, was very impressive. Some of the plot points were rather contrived and unrealistic (such as a sequence where two athletes have a full-on fight on the track in front of thousands of spectators) but, for the most part, the film carries the audience along at a good old pace. Fast Girls is by no means perfect, but it doesn't fall into the trap of recycling elements from other films of this type without putting a new slant on it.

For the most part, Fast Girls is a refreshing take on a sub-genre which has produced some great, and some really rather awful, films. Its cast certainly make the film and I can't remember the last time I left a cinema feeling quite so happy. If, however, our female athletic Olympic team are anything like the girls in this film, we're doomed. 

Clapperboard Rating: * * * *