Film Review: Ferrari

3 Stars

By Joseph Beyer | Jan. 13, 2024

Director Michael Mann’s first film in eight years came roaring into the theatrical marketplace with all the fanfare worthy of a star-studded cast and a famed helmer. But despite grand international aspirations for an equally grand biography of a singular sports car and racing legend, Ferrari is disappointingly in need of too many tune-ups for this critic to recommend highly. (Although I did find myself fascinated by the cinematic car wreck as I watched it play out over 2 hours and 10 minutes idling toward the finish.)

As a story, the Ferrari narrative is grounded in truth and based on Brock Yates’ 1991 biography Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races, the Machine. As a screenplay adaptation in the hands of Troy Kennedy Martin (famed writer of the original 1969 film The Italian Job), it moves broadly and confidently across time and space historically and then introspectively into the inner life of the motorsports legend.

The film is mainly set in the Italian town of Modena where the iconic car company was born, and the script is crafted quite beautifully to fit Mann’s directorial style of observation and voyeurism with characters in the midst of existential crisis.

The real Enzo Ferrari’s life was a cycle of personal tragedies, booms, and financial busts, and finally defined by a sort of Elon-Muskian drive to succeed at all costs. Playing a character filled with inherent complications and drama, actor Adam Driver portrays Ferrari in a subdued, quietly tortured, and sometimes intriguing way, rather than offering the larger-than-life personality you might expect.

As he struggles to use lagging car sales to fuel his truest desire for car racing, Ferrari is simultaneously haunted with personal demons of his past, the mechanical limits of his vision, and the remnants of a loveless marriage to his wife and business partner, Laura.

As played with surprising gusto by Penélope Cruz (a star who seems determined to continue exploring powerful and complicated characters in this stage of her career), Laura battles with Enzo for his love and attention in the only relationship on screen you’ll likely care about. Using the quiet precision of a relationship dynamic forged from years of resentment, Cruz and Driver’s performances deliver much needed synchronicity, cohesion, and depth.

If, as some say, a film is only as great as its worst moments, then Ferrari does offer many to choose from, from the cheeky and somewhat unrewarding cameo by Patrick Dempsey (another real-life racing aficionado) as Peiro Taruffi, to the repetitive laps around the track that prove hard to reimagine, to the wild variation of accents and colloquial approaches to “playing Italian.”

But most confusing might be the key performance of Ferrari’s mistress, Lina Lardi (as played by actress Shailene Woodley), whom Ferrari hides and protects along with his secret son. Lina and Ferrari’s relationship is meandering, lethargic, and lacks chimica romantica in all ways. Casting director Francine Maisler’s “what if?” choice becomes one of the movie’s most fatal flaws.

As the credits roll, you may find yourself wondering if you really know much more about Enzo Ferrari than you could have gleaned from the trailer, but for race fans or motor history buffs, it may be enough.