Drag Race

"Gentlemen, start your engines." So goes the traditional opening of the Indianapolis 500. Winning, a film shakily based on that classic competition, only misfires.

Fresh from Rachel, Rachel and stale from lack of motivation, Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward career through the movie looking for an opportunity to display their talents. They have to struggle with a plot as full of gimmicks as a garage. Race Driver Frank Capua (Newman) meets aging Avis girl (Woodward). She tries harder; he marries her. Alas, Capua suffers from autoeroticism. Night after night' he stays at the speedway, revving up his car instead of his wife. One morning he comes home to find her in the arms of another driver (Robert Wagner).

Capua's race relations deteriorate. The compulsive winner becomes a perpetual loser--until the day of the big one, the Indy 500. Director James Goldstone even manages to make a wreck of the most celebrated American auto race. Progress is as circular and unsurprising as the movement of a minute hand; the script is reminiscent of a radio play, with an announcer booming: "It's a different Frank Capua out there today!" When the film casts a sociological eye, it is toward such riddled targets as baton-twirling teeny-boppers and accident-hungry spectators.

The stars obviously relish working together, and in fleeting scenes exhibit their celebrated force and subtlety, but Winning stifles any attempt at authentic emotion or excitement. The Newmans are harddriving, lifelong competitors; both now seem ready for a pit stop.

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