One Fast Move Review: An initially interesting treatment later makes things stale
The punchy dialogues and performances rise above predictability, but after a point, it gets tiresome
Early on in One Fast Move, biker Wes Neal (KJ Apa, unrecognisable from his Riverdale days) is just about to leave prison, and the officer briefs him about the discharge process. He responds in the most matter-of-fact way: “When can I get my bike back?” We get excited, hoping for a racy sports thriller about bikes and bad men.
However, it is not until half of the runtime that we even get to the first race. We first meet veteran biker Dean Miller (Eric Dane), Neal’s biological father, who left him as a kid. This is a melodramatic premise, but One Fast Move steers clear of any feelings. Neal lands up at Dean’s not because he wants a father, but to get his life together by biking. Dean doesn’t have any sense of guilt; he agrees to train Neal only because Neal is a good biker.
Both KJ Apa and Dane are well-cast and share great camaraderie. In the film’s best portion, their characters are just two men biking, and the fact that they are father-son happens to be immaterial. Together with another father figure, Abel (Edward James Olmos, letting out wise grandpa energy), there’s a lot of funny one-liners. “He hasn’t been laid since Reagan was president” is responded with “He hasn’t won a race since Bush was president, and I’m talking about the first one.” “This bike is too light” is responded with, “It’s your balls that are.” The dialogues are basic but effective, and the romantic angle, albeit needless, is handled well. Maia Reficco plays the love interest, and her character is given nice little touches, like not bringing her son near Neal after seeing him get violent once or being amused every time a bike whizzes past.
It is only after Neal wins his first race that Dean calls him his son. These are cold, emotionless men who seemingly couldn’t care less about each other. KJ Apa does well in the limited scope his role has, but it is Eric Dane who takes the cake. Dean is a self-obsessed, old white man blowing his own horns (when asked if he’s not too old for biking, he says “I do it for my fans!”), and Dane strikes the perfect pitch to play him.
This setup is rather interesting—a deeply personal situation is brushed off as the characters themselves aren’t bothered by it. Biking is all that seems to matter. But once the novelty of this setup wears off, things become tiresome. The plot runs into a cliched sports drama trajectory. The stunts are ordinary at best, and we get one father-son angle after another. Every character in the film has some form of Daddy Issue. The decision to stray away from drama works as long as the characters are just chatting and biking. But once the breakdowns and fights start happening, One Fast Move continues this emotionless approach, rendering the scenes stale.
It is only at the climax that we get a mildly surprising twist. We expect a father-son reconciliation and that the father will continue rooting for the son. But what we get is rather smile-worthy, something in tune with Dean’s character. One Fast Move should have had more moments like this. When the film ends, it’s like riding a bike that drives well off-road but crashes once it reaches a normal road.