Legendary director Michael Mann returns to the big screen with a new biopic centered around a legendary car maker. Ferrari transports us to the summer of 1957 as Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) and his wife Laura (Penelope Cruz) deal with the looming possibility of bankruptcy for the company that they built ten years earlier. As Enzo takes a chance on saving the company with a new race car to compete in the 1,000 mile Mille Miglia race across Italy, old wounds reopen in his family life that threatens the continued success of both.
The title of the film may mislead many viewers into thinking of Ferrari as a biopic of a business magnate or a film about car racing. And while it does contain elements of these things, what this film is about at its core is family dynamics, namely where one on the brink of rupture converges with grief and the pressures of work. Enzo and Laura have a complicated marriage, made confusing by Enzo’s professional ambitions and personal appetites as well as their family tragedies. The emotions surrounding these complications are mostly suppressed by both Enzo and Laura until they slowly bubble to the surface over the course of the film as the Ferrari company approaches a crossroads over its ability to stay afloat financially. The stress resurfaces feelings Laura is harboring over the death of their son and her reluctant agreement with Enzo over his mistresses. As both aspects of the Ferraris’ lives face mounting pressure, it pushes the couple to the brink as well. This story is the main thread of the film and for that, Ferrari suffers. This family drama feels rote and rehashed from countless other films and thus, melodramatic and uninteresting. Cruz and Driver’s considerable acting talents feel wasted here as the story goes through the motions of an unraveling marriage with nothing new to say about the concept. Driver does well in transforming himself into the famed Ferrari, but he’s all dressed up with nowhere interesting to go. Cruz emotes what she is given very well, but the substance of what she is acting out is lacking.
Ferrari does include a racing subplot as Enzo seeks to perfect a new car throughout the film. This story is mostly separated out from the family drama with the exception of a handful of moments, notably when Enzo and Laura exhibit a cold and uncaring reaction in the wake of the death of Eugenio Castellotti (Marino Franchitti) when testing their new car hinting at the tension to come and when Enzo teaches his son with his mistress the finer points of how to build effective race cars. The racing scenes themselves are technically well done with their prowess coming off best in a theatrical setting. The camera techniques used in shooting the races and the sound design are top notch and make for quality action scenes. The stakes for the racing subplot fails to live up to the technical quality however. The story of Enzo’s quest for racing supremacy is not compelling to watch and fails to pull the viewer in. Although part of his work to save his company, the tension from his need to win never fully vests as it feels separate and apart from the main storyline about his family, despite the attempts to connect the two.
Ferrari comes across as disjointed and uninteresting, despite the technically impressive racing scenes. That subplot and its main story of a marriage in turmoil never really meld well together despite the film’s stars Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz doing their best to elevate the material. Ultimately, this is a film you can drive right past.
Image: NEON
