Le Mans '66 Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

2. Josh Lucas' Cartoonish Villain

Josh Lucas has a memorable role in the movie - his first in a major theatrical release in years, in fact - as Ford executive Leo Beebe, and presents the biggest obstacle to rough-around-the-edges racer Ken Miles (Christian Bale) getting a shot at racing for Ford in Le Mans.

Lucas does fine with the material given, but his character is depicted as just a little too much of a black-and-white "villain" for his own good, smugly sneering as he pulls the puppet-strings and tries to get Miles removed from the Ford project.

Perhaps were he given a few more scenes to be developed as a well-rounded character this wouldn't stick out so much, but as it stands, almost every scene where he's in the movie and opens his mouth, he's scheming to the point where it's vaguely comical.

Again, a film that wasn't aiming quite so intently for the multiplex crowd probably could've done something more interesting with Beebe, but instead he's just a few scenes short of twirling his mustache and cackling wildly when things go wrong for Miles.