PERHAPS STYMIED

by the calibre of great documentaries currently showing, Wayne, a film about Australia’s celebrated twowheeled maestro, doesn’t quite achieve pole position.

Telling the tale of Aussie racing legend Wayne Gardner, who rose from a dirt bike rider to World Motorcycle Grand Prix champion, the film gets off the grid with a turbo-charged montage of the leather-clad Aussie sporting hero. There’s revving bikes, adoring fans, mullets and stubbies in full force, all to the backdrop of a wailing Jimmy Barnes.

It’s a pulsating and glorious snapshot of 80s Australia in full effect. Unfortunately, the film never manages to maintain that level of energy, backing off the throttle into a more dulcet tone for the remainder of the film.

Brought up by a relatively poor family in the steelworks and mining town of Wollongong, Gardner’s story follows a familiar trajectory common to many sporting heroes; a blinkered passion for the sport, strained relationships, triumph in the face of adversity. Where this doco is most interesting is the effect Gardner had on Australia’s many adoring fans at a time when the big red country was flexing its muscles on the sporting world.

Considering it’s his first feature documentary, director Jeremy Sims does an adequate job, despite being disappointingly short of archival footage of Gardner’s early life. The decision to plug the gaps with quasi-anime styled cartoons is perhaps a wink to the Japanese bikes on show but feels out of sorts with the rest of the documentary.

Wayne will definitely appeal to past and present enthusiasts of the sport, or the man himself. Beyond that, it remains frustratingly mild, all too briefly hitting top gear.