Without Limits (Reviewed on Sept. 28/98)
Starring Billy Crudup, Donald Sutherland, Monica Potter
"Without Limits" is the second film in less than a year to tell the story of Steve Prefontaine, one of the greatest runners in American History. The first was called "Prefontaine", and I did not like it much. It started off well enough, but then ran out of steam too quickly. "Without Limits", unfortunately, follows the same pattern.
"Without Limits" stars relative unknown Billy Crudup as the charismatic Prefontaine, and Sutherland as his coach and mentor, Bill Bowerman. The performances are top-notch, with Crudup giving a star-making performance as the doomed athelete. Monica Potter is the only weak link in the cast. It seems she was hired simply because she is pretty, because she elicited no interest from myself. I was bored everytime she was on screen, and found her performance comprable to a Cigar Store Indian, except the Cigar Store Indian is much more interesting to look at.
As with "Prefontaine", the movie starts out quite well. During the first half-hour, I was relieved to find that the director, the legendary Robert Towne, had chosen to film Pre's story in a linear fashion, unlike the earlier film, which was shot in a pseudo-documentary style which was exceptionally distracting. However, as the movie progressed, I found myself experiencing a sense of deja vu. Like "Prefontaine", I was becoming more and more impatient with the film as it went on. Once Pre goes to the Olympics, is there really much more to say? I don't think so. All that stuff about his fight with the Amateur Athletes Association was nothing but filler. A movie about a world-famous runner should concern itself with only what made the man such a legend. I don't care whether or not he was a lothario off the track, I only want to know about what happened *on* the track.
Since I have disliked this film and "Prefontaine", I can come to only one conclusion: While Pre may have been the greatest runner of his time, his life just isn't filmable. He didn't do enough to fill a two-hour running time.
"Without Limits" is worthwhile only for the performances of it's two leads, and nothing else.
** out of ****
-- David Nusair dnusair@chat.carleton.ca Come visit my "Reel Film Reviews" site! "http://chat.carleton.ca/~dnusair"
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