My favorite scene in "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" comes in the last ten minutes: the the closing arguments from Preston Tucker about the tenets of free enterprise and the little guy vs. big business. It's an impassioned speech and really where Jeff Bridges gets to shine in the lead role.
Tucker's little guy taking on the Big 3 automakers is the heart of the story, and there's universal appeal in this. The film has a rose-colored glasses look on the past with its advertising style of telling this story (kudos to the art department on this), and its genial performances do suck you in. My problem was in the overall execution. This thing runs with a shuddering transmission; go-stop, go-stop. The characters' cheer whenever things go right is palpable, but there's tragedy lurking at every corner. It just doesn't stop. And the big reveal scene is dragged out to torturous ends - which is fine if that's what really happened, but it runs counter to the rest of the movie's slick polish.
And things felt overwrought by the time we get to the courtroom drama, which is why that speech was such a breath of fresh air. I was hoping for that feeling from the rest of the movie.
6/10
Tucker's little guy taking on the Big 3 automakers is the heart of the story, and there's universal appeal in this. The film has a rose-colored glasses look on the past with its advertising style of telling this story (kudos to the art department on this), and its genial performances do suck you in. My problem was in the overall execution. This thing runs with a shuddering transmission; go-stop, go-stop. The characters' cheer whenever things go right is palpable, but there's tragedy lurking at every corner. It just doesn't stop. And the big reveal scene is dragged out to torturous ends - which is fine if that's what really happened, but it runs counter to the rest of the movie's slick polish.
And things felt overwrought by the time we get to the courtroom drama, which is why that speech was such a breath of fresh air. I was hoping for that feeling from the rest of the movie.
6/10