The trouble starts with a senseless storyline riddled with hackneyed dialogue, courtesy of once-respected scriptwriter Robert Towne. Cole Trickle (Tom Cruise) is a talented young driver whose track rivalry with the fanatic Rowdy Burns (Michael Rooker) leads to a crash that nearly kills them both. The accident, ostensibly a pivotal point in the movie, takes Rowdy out of contention–but he is immediately replaced by another racetrack rival. It unites Trickle with Dr. Claire Lewecki (Nicole Kidman)–but they spend very little time together. It raises pointed questions about the drivers' motives and maturity–but these are dropped, unanswered, in time for the crucial race at Daytona.

Drifting around in this vacuum of a plot, which is cut choppily between endless shots of zooming cars, the actors rely on their respective mannerisms for impetus. Robert Duvall plays car designer Harry Hogge crustier than an over-cooked baguette. Cruise stalks around photogenically, tightening his jaw muscles and giving everyone those intense, hawklike looks. Nicole Kidman is direct and intelligent, but her character, unfortunately, has no effect at all on the boneheads around her.

Those who are heavily infatuated with Tom Cruise or cars or both will be happy to sit back and watch them looking great. But the film-makers' own infatuation with stock-car racing isn't so harmless: it made them forget about the audience, and it turned their ode to speed into a slow trip to nowhere.