IN THE leap from Hannibal Lecter to speed demon pensioner, you could be forgiven for thinking Anthony Hopkins is suffering some sort of late-life crisis.

In what must be his least-showy performance ever, Hopkins plays the sweet, slightly muddled Burt Munro, who is obsessed with the love of his life, his Indian a 1920s' motorcycle.

Following a lifetime of tinkering with his bike, a heart attack convinces Burt to take it to the USA and enter a land speed record event.

So begins a twee, rose-tinted tale as Burt sails from New Zealand to America to fulfil his dreams.

See Burt charm his bank manager into giving him a loan for the trip and note how the American immigration officials turn to putty in his hands.

Watch Burt as he unwittingly befriends a transvestite and his confusion as a waitress asks if he prefers his eggs sunny-side up.

Watching Burt soon becomes a nauseating experience.

A road trip sees him bestowing pearls of wisdom on a young Vietnam war vet and bedding a grandmother, like some sort of Saga advert gone wrong.

The film is so overly heart-warming you find yourself longing for Hopkins to revert back to the homicidal Dr Lecter and to bite someone's nose off.

When Burt eventually reaches the Utah Bonneville Salt flats, trouble rears our hero has not registered for the race.

But does that matter? Of course not. Naturally, Burt is able to talk the organisers into letting him race and persuades them to overlook his lack of a safety chute, fire extinguisher or brakes.

Burt mounts his Indian and makes a beeline across the shimmering salt plains.

Does he break the land speed record? Well, I don't think I'm giving too much away when I point out the film is not called The World's Second Fastest Indian.

Based on the true story of the real-life Kiwi, Burt's 1967 speed record of nearly 200mph still stands today.

Lightweight and sickly-sweet in places, The World's Fastest Indian is a gentle road movie about fulfilling your dreams whatever your age.

The sight of the elderly Munro zipping across the salt flats does put your heart into your mouth, but by then it all feels rather too little too late.

The rest of the pace of the film is so slow by the time we get down to business it's difficult to care about what happens to Burt.