Fast Girls (film)
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''Fast Girls'' is a 2012 British
sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
directed by Regan Hall, and produced by Damian Jones. The film was written by Jay Basu, Roy Williams, and
Noel Clarke Noel Anthony Clarke (born 6 December 1975) is an English actor, writer, director and producer. Rising to prominence for playing Mickey Smith in ''Doctor Who'' (2005–2006, 2008, 2010), he received critical acclaim for writing, directing, and ...
. The film stars
Lenora Crichlow Lenora Isabella Crichlow (born 4 January 1985) is a British actress. She became known for her starring roles as Maria "Sugar" Sweet in the Channel 4 comedy-drama series '' Sugar Rush'', Annie Sawyer in the BBC Three supernatural drama series ' ...
,
Lily James Lily Chloe Ninette Thomson (born 5 April 1989), known professionally as Lily James, is an English actress. She studied acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and began her career in the British television series '' Just Wi ...
,
Bradley James Bradley James (born 1983 or 1984) is an English actor. He is best known for starring as Arthur Pendragon in the BBC series '' Merlin'' (2008–12), Damien Thorn in '' Damien'' (2016), Varga in '' Underworld: Blood Wars'', Giuliano de' Medici ...
, and
Rupert Graves Rupert Simeon Graves (born 30 June 1963) is an English film, television, and theatre actor. He is known for his roles in '' A Room with a View'', '' Maurice'', '' The Madness of King George'' and '' The Forsyte Saga''. From 2010 to 2017 he sta ...
. The film follows the story of two women and their race and personal differences as they become professional sprinters and join the British relay team for a World Championship event. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 15 June 2012. It had originally been intended to base the athletics competition in the film on the
2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
. Due to tight legal restrictions on the use of Olympic trademarks, the
International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...
disallowed any reference to the Olympic Games in the film, and the script had to be re-written to make the competition a fictional one. Released a month before the 2012 Summer Olympics, ''Fast Girls'' had its world premiere in London on 7 June 2012 and was released eight days later in the United Kingdom. The film received positive reviews from critics and earned $1 million dollars at the worldwide box office.


Plot

Sprinter Shania Andrews, who lives in a London
council estate Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council housing or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011, when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in social housing. D ...
with her aunt and problematic sister, trains with a fallen-from-grace older coach on a dilapidated track in the suburbs of London. Her diligent training comes to fruition where she wins the 200m dash against the well-known, entitled runner Lisa Temple at a regional track meet. When Shania wins the final heat, the UK Track and Field National Team approaches her as a leg in the 4 x 100m relay team. While three other team members accept her into the fold, Temple holds a grudge against Andrews from the last race. The rivalry gets toxic and upsets Andrews, and the first exhibition indoor race turns into a disaster, as she had stayed up the previous night, falling back into her past self-destruction behaviour with her sister and dubious friends at the government housing complex. Shania and Lisa (anchor leg and presumed fastest runner) botch the handoff technique and the runners descend into recriminations. Shania decides to focus on the solo 200m and abandons the relay team in anger much to the dismay of the coach, who is trying to patch things up between the two rivals. Upon arriving back home, her aunt has decided to throw Shania and her partying sister out of the apartment after an all-night party was held there. Shania, now homeless, has to rely on her old coach for training and housing as she works to stay on the team as a single event runner. After an all-girls night out, relations thaw a bit between the runners, but Shania still refuses to rejoin the team as the 3rd leg. The relay team is formalized, with older runner and British legend Trix Warren as the replacement runner. At the world championships, held in London before the 2012 Olympics, both Shania and Lisa have disappointing position finishes in the 200m open race, despite personal-best times, as they are easily beaten by dominant US and Jamaican teams. Lisa's father, a past Gold Olympian and UK Olympic chairman, is angry and disappointed. To add insult to injury, Trix tears her hamstring in her 100 metre heat and the team is without a leg of the relay. Trix and Shania have a heart to heart, with the veteran runner lecturing the younger on lost opportunities. Shania rejoins the relay squad but the UK team, yet again, has issues with their underhand handoff technique which takes crucial time off the team's position in the semi-final heat. The UK comes in fourth and does not make the final slot, and the 2 runners end up in a physical fight over the handoff issues. Due to an out-of-lane technical fault, however, the French 3rd place finishers are disqualified and the UK slips into the finals despite the problems of the runners. However, Shania is thrown off the team by the UK Track and Field oversight committee led by Lisa's father and the team will most likely have to default. Lisa, struggling with her domineering father, is convinced by Shania to confront him and the committee to allow her back in or else Lisa will also resign from the UK team. David Temple is stunned and speechless at his daughter's strong-willed demands and the conversation is left open-ended. Determined to fix their relationship and their handoff issues, Shania and Lisa work on their technique in a local parking garage. It becomes apparent that the problem is Shania's approach speed and handoff to Lisa, the anchor. Lisa comes to the conclusion that the traditional ordering of "fastest is lastest" would work better and is more appropriate. The revelation proves successful as both Shania and Lisa perfect the overhand handoff technique (a faster but less reliable method of transferring the baton). In the final heat, the movie focuses on the 1-2-3-Anchor handoffs in anticipation of another dropped baton. To the UK coach's dismay, the overhand handoff gets the millisecond needed to pull off the UK photo-finish win over the US and Jamaican teams.


Cast


Production


Development

It had originally been intended to base the athletics competition in the film on the
2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
. Due to tight legal restrictions on the use of Olympic trademarks, the
International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...
disallowed any reference to the Olympic Games in the film, and the script had to be re-written to make the competition a fictional one. Co-writer
Noel Clarke Noel Anthony Clarke (born 6 December 1975) is an English actor, writer, director and producer. Rising to prominence for playing Mickey Smith in ''Doctor Who'' (2005–2006, 2008, 2010), he received critical acclaim for writing, directing, and ...
took inspiration from ''
Rocky ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American independent film, independent sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the Rocky (film series), ''Rocky'' franchise and also star ...
'', saying that if you made a film about any sport you'd want it to be the equivalent of what ''Rocky'' was to boxing. He also noted that the movie was deliberately designed to be released just before the Olympics, as a feel-good film in which Britain did really well.


Casting

Casting was conducted in
Regent's Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, Borough of Camden (and historical ...
in London, where producer Damian Jones and first time movie director Regan Hall chose the four actresses who would become the 4×100 metre relay team in the film. The aim was to find actresses who would be believable on screen as athletes. The athletic extras in the film are from athletic clubs in London,
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
and
Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood (borough), Charnwood Borough of Leicestershire, England; it is the administrative centre of Charnwood Borough Council. At the United Kingdom 2021 census, the town's built-up area had a popula ...
. Lily James wasn't able to participate in the audition in Regent's Park, but instead made a video recording of herself running for the casting.


Filming

The actresses portraying athletes completed six weeks of intensive training at
Crystal Palace National Sports Centre The National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace, London, Crystal Palace in south London, England is a large sports centre and outdoor Sport of athletics, athletics stadium. It was opened in 1964 in Crystal Palace Park, close to the site of the for ...
prior to the beginning of the shooting phase of the film. The training sessions involved up to a thousand
sit-ups The sit-up is an abdominal endurance training exercise to strengthen, tighten and tone the abdominal muscles. It is similar to a curl-up (that targets the rectus abdominis and also works the external and internal obliques), but sit-ups have a ...
each day, six days a week. Crichlow was pleased that the film features a staple feature of sports movies: a training montage. The GB Qualifiers scene was filmed in Queen Elizabeth II track, Enfield. The Championships in Barcelona were filmed inside Lea Valley Athletic Centre, also in Enfield. The derelict track where Lenora's character trains is filmed in Feltham, West London.


Promotion and release

The film was launched at the
Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...
in 2011 as Hall's first full-length feature. Members of the film's cast were promoting the film at the 2012
Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
in order to secure an international
distributor A distributor is an electric and mechanical device used in the ignition system of older spark-ignition engines. The distributor's main function is to route electricity from the ignition coil to each spark plug at the correct time. Design ...
for the movie, with the rights pre-acquired for the UK distribution by
StudioCanal UK StudioCanal Limited, trade name, doing business as StudioCanal UK (formerly known as Optimum Releasing), is a British film distribution division and the official British branch of the French film & television production and distribution company ...
at the time of the film's launch. The premiere of the film took place in London's
Leicester Square Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised town square, square in the West End of London, England, and is the centre of London's entertainment district. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leice ...
a few weeks ahead of the
2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
, also to be held in London. The red carpet was not traditionally plain, but instead had track markings on it to simulate an
athletics track An all-weather running track is a rubberized, artificial Race track#Surfaces, running surface for track and field athletics. It provides a consistent surface for competitors to test their athletic ability unencumbered by adverse weather conditi ...
. Guests attending the premiere included British athlete Dame
Kelly Holmes Dame Kelly Holmes (born 19 April 1970) is a retired British Middle-distance running, middle distance Track and field, athlete and television personality. Holmes specialised in the 800 metres, 800 and 1500 metres events and won gold medals for ...
. It went on general release in the UK on 15 June 2012.


Reception

On
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
the film has a score of 83% based on reviews from 23 critics. Leslie Felperin reviewed the film for ''Variety'' when it aired at Cannes. She felt that the portrait of the environments in the film felt credible and while the film was also technically solid, it was quite obvious when stand-in athletes were used in long shots. Simon Reynolds saw the film for
Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its initial launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television pro ...
, saying that while it was entertaining, it was also cheesy and won't be considered a classic in the future. He gave the film three out of five stars. Mark Adams gave the film four out of five stars for the ''
Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...
'', calling it an uplifting bit of pre-Olympics entertainment.


Accolades


See also

*
List of films about the sport of athletics The following is a list of films featuring the sport of athletics, including track and field. List See also *List of sports films * List of highest grossing sports films References {{Sports films List Films Athletics Athletics may refer ...


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fast Girls 2012 films 2012 drama films 2010s British films 2010s English-language films 2010s sports drama films Black British films British sports drama films English-language sports drama films Films shot in London Films with screenplays by Noel Clarke