Simmons as Ralph and Barry Pepper as Dale are each formidable, transforming all of the script's redneck motorhead cliches into something heartfelt but not sentimental. Simmons, so effectively nasty as a white supremacist on "Oz," walks the line between abusive and tough-loving as he knocks his son down ("When are you going to learn what it takes to be a man?" he snarls at the young Dale) and then pushes him on to greater racing glory. Ralph isn't at all likable, but Simmons doesn't make him into that tired biopic staple, the over-the-top evil parent.
And Pepper shows Dale's growth from slacker to compassionate family man without getting too soft or sacrificing grit. He makes it clear that the twinkle in Dale Earnhardt's eye was a fierce competitive streak as much as it was charisma. And as Dale mentors Dale Jr., recreating his contentious-affectionate relationship with his own father, Pepper doesn't milk it for movie tears. It's a remarkably authentic performance.
Elizabeth Mitchell, who has made a career in failed TV series and playing Kerry Weaver's first girlfriend on "ER," is effective as Dale's third wife, Teresa. She dyes her hair brown and delivers a richly naturalistic turn as a woman who is both selflessly supportive of Dale's career and ego ("You're magic on the asphalt" she says) but unwilling to be used. Her tearful relationship ultimatum to him brings more depth to the script than it deserves, and even her wifey moments are easy to take. Brunettes, it seems, have more drama.
But "3" -- which refers both to Dale Earnhardt's car number and to the number of Earnhardt generations on the race track so far -- fails to capture the excitement of both racing and Earnhardt's importance to it. There's no sense of the growing legions of fans watching him rise from the red-dirt tracks of North Carolina to Daytona, no building sense of an American sensation. Earnhardt's story just sits there, a collection of scenes and a collection of impressive acting moments that don't quite add up to a life. When Earnhardt's end comes in 2001 at Daytona, as we know it will, the movie doesn't succeed in capturing the profundity of the loss. There is a crash, but the silence afterward fails to resound.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.
