Overhaul follows a tuck-racing driver who’s lost everything getting a tempting but dangerous officer — to become a getaway driver for a cargo-robbing gang. The movie is currently streaming on Netflix.
Story
Roger is a truck racing driver who loses all sponsors after a losing streak and after his dad dies tragically, he is left with a debt his dad owed to a gangster named Odillon.
The gangster offers a unique proposition. Roger must work for Odillon and his business of cargo truck robberies by which he can pay off his debt and earn money for his team.
Together with his coach and best friend, Danilo, he makes big bucks as the getaway driver. After a while of economic prosperity, Danilo and Roger decide to quit crime.
However, Danilo dies during their last job and Roger soon starts getting calls from Smokey regarding new deliveries. He ignores it while looking for any possible family of Bárbara, Danilo’s daughter.
He’s eventually forced to heed the call and go on a job, which goes awry, resulting in Smokey kidnapping Bárbara to force Roger to go on a last job when he refuses to do so.
Meanwhile, policeman Alfonso threatens Roger to help them catch Odillon, Smokey, and others. Roger successfully completes the last run and gets Bárbara freed, with the help of Débora.
Smokey surrenders, Odillon is arrested, and so is Roger, who serves his two-year sentence and gets out to begin life anew, with Débora and Bárbara by his side, as Overhaul rolls the credits.
Performances
Thiago Martins does a good enough job as the lead Roger, and if the plan was to portray him as a rather annoying, spoiled, sore loser, he does a great job delivering on all those fronts.
Sharon Menezes does a great job with the abysmal amount that she’s given to work with and looks absolutely phenomenal while doing it.
Evandro Mesquita brings a manical energy to his performance as Odillon and it feels off just because the rest of the film is comparatively very grounded.
Positives
Much like the races features in Overhaul, the entire runtime is a rather swift business as well, which is the saving grace of the film as all the bad stuff goes by pretty quickly.
The races can be thrilling at times and there is a dynamic between Roger and his coach, be it Danilo or his daughter, that doesn’t just remain constant.
Negatives
The film spends little time building the chemistry between Roger and Bárbara despite her looking to find a father figure in him. His desperation to protect her lacks a weight that would have been there were he a bit more caring to her.
It’s sort of unbelievable and hilarious that Débora, an accomplished queen of the tracks, would be this tolerant, much less fond of such a bratty and annoying Roger.
She is also not fleshed out as much as she should have been and lacks dimensions. Their romance feels unearned at the end of Overhaul. There’s little thrill in the robberies and the stakes feel superficial even if they’re real.
Verdict
Overhaul deals with truck racing, in addition to high-stakes robberies, gangs, deaths, and the drama of strenuous relationships but it does all that with a diluted commitment.
There are ingredients necessary for a great action caper here but they are used to cook up just another forgettable mess in a long line of such forgettable messes.
Overhaul
Director: Tomas Portella
Date Created: 2023-09-27 12:30
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