“What I love about my relationship with Kevin is that he had that ethic and he was more than willing to share that with me. “You know, ‘Plan your drive and drive your plan’ is always one that was bandied about when I was getting started. “There’s all sorts of little mantras in the racing world and Enzo gives us plenty of them in the book,” Stein said. York was Stein’s driving instructor when he attended ProFormance Racing School at Pacific Raceways near Seattle in the mid-2000s. The story of race car driver Denny Swift as told through the eyes of his golden retriever, Enzo, is inspired by an actual, real-life racer by the name of Kevin York. I'd recommend it.Any racing enthusiast who has read Garth Stein’s best-selling novel, “The Art of Racing in the Rain” - and anybody who will see its film adaptation when it hits theaters later this week - is quick to point out the authenticity of the racing sequences depicted in the story.Īnd there’s a good reason for it. But there is one hissable villain just to give the film a little balance. I'd recommend this when you just want a watch a film with admirable characters acting admirably in response to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. I saw that over 50 years ago and it still scares me. And a stuffed zebra has a scene that is as surreal as the Twilight Zone episode I saw as a kid with a bunch of mannequins calling out 'Marsha!' to a terrorized woman locked in a department store at night. I don't think I'd let a kid under ten see this. But I do disagree with some reviewers here. It is all about loyalty, determination, grieving, fear of abandonment, and friendship. The pup makes the movie, and the actors don't try to get in the way. Kevin Costner does a good job of narrating for Enzo. What makes the story even more unique is the viewpoint - a story told in flash back by Denny's dog Enzo as is he is dying of old age in Denny's arms, starting from the time Denny adopted him as a puppy, to Denny's marriage to Eve, to the birth of their daughter, and everything that came in between and after. It's the story of Denny, an average Joe with a rather unique occupation - teacher of race car driving and an aspiring race car driver himself. If all you watch are Christopher Nolan and Ingmar Bergman films, you will eventually find yourself staring glassy eyed into space, drinking heavily, and wondering, in the words of the 70s band Chicago - 'Does anybody really know what time it is?'. every now and then, whether we will admit it or not, we all need to watch such a film.

Garth stein racing in the rain