The Program (15)

three stars

Dir: Stephen Frears

With: Ben Foster, Chris O’Dowd, Dustin Hoffman

Runtime: 103 minutes

FROM the spelling in the title one might suspect Stephen Frears’s sporting biopic was a thoroughly American affair. True, it is the story of an all-American hero, Lance Armstrong, who falls spectacularly from grace, but it is set against the backdrop of that most European of sporting contests, the Tour de France.

But then the entire picture is about clashes, cultural, personality, sporting, moral, and otherwise. It takes an extraordinary actor to stand at the eye of such a dramatic storm and keep his cool, and Frears has found his man in Ben Foster, who plays the seven times Tour winner with blistering conviction. While those in search of the meat and drink of the story would do better to seek out The Armstrong Lie, Alex Gibney’s 2013 documentary, admirers of the character actor’s art will find more than enough sustenance in Foster’s outstanding, award-worthy performance.

The picture opens as one of the clashes at the centre of the picture is in bud. The Sunday Times journalist David Walsh (played by Walsh’s fellow Irishman Chris O’Dowd) is interviewing an up and coming rider by the name of Lance Armstrong over a game of table football. It is a silly game (the football, not the interview) but the ferociously competitive Armstrong is playing as if his life depended on winning. He regards Walsh as just another little person standing in his way of yet another victory. Big mistake. It was Walsh who spotted the American’s potential, and it was Walsh who could see that all was not as it seemed when the victories started to arrive thick and fast.

The screenplay here is by Glasgow’s John Hodge (Trainspotting), adapting Walsh’s book. Another writer, say Peter Morgan of Frost/Nixon and The Queen, might have been tempted to do it as a strict two header, the journo versus the athlete. While Hodge incorporates elements of this tussle, there is not enough of it. Instead of two characters going mano e mano, we have detail layered upon detail, plus supplementary characters and sub plots aplenty. This ensures that the picture spins along efficiently enough, but it also drains the piece of tension. Just as one becomes engrossed in one aspect of the story, on we whizz to the next as if in some time trial. Over time, the script almost seems to forget about Walsh. This is pity, not just because Walsh is an interesting character in his own right - the terrier like journo, determined to get his story - but because it keeps the talented O’Dowd off the screen for too long. Having shown his comedy chops in Bridesmaids, it is clear O’Dowd has plenty to offer drama besides.

With the drama stopping and starting, it is largely down to Foster to power the picture along through sheer force of personality. Beside the physical transformation he undergoes after being told by the doctor in charge of the doping programme that he is carrying too much fat, Foster morphs into the intense, driven, Armstrong by the minute. He has the arrogance of a champ, but we also see a softer side to him as he recovers from cancer and sets about repaying the debt to fate by raising millions for other sufferers. Armstrong is a complex character who resists a purely black and white treatment, and Foster ensures he receives it.

Frears, like Hodges, takes a fairly workmanlike approach to the tale, believing it better to stick to the facts as known when dealing with a story with more twists and turns than a ride through the mountains. Speaking of which, the marriage between footage fact and fiction is seamless, leading to some truly thrilling scenes as the races hot up.

There is a problem with all this attention to the facts, though. Given that many viewers are likely to know how the story turned out, the film needed something more to be remarkable. More Walsh, for a start. As it is, Armstrong reigns supreme. For all that the picture lays bare the former champion’s rise and plummet once more, one has a sneaking suspicion he would approve.