Ferrari

Ferrari ends up being such a slog of a movie in place of what should've been a thrilling an interesting portrait of a complex figure. The performances might be solid and there's an effective moment here or there but the word that comes to mind when describing the film as a whole is flat. This filmmaker and cast telling a story with this interesting a subject matter should've amounted to a lot more than it ultimately did. For as exhilarating as motor racing is supposed to be I have to say I found the film to be overwhelmingly dull when all was said and done.

The whole aesthetic is totally without life which is the last thing I would've expected for a director of Michael Mann's calibre. Mann takes a very documentarian approach to the directing and it just robs the film of any energy or sense of direction. From almost the opening minutes there a serious lack of momentum. The scenes play out in very beat for beat type way with no sense of flair and as impressive as the racing sequences are they're too few and far between to save this movie from the drag that it ends up being. All the scenes away from the track are framed in the most shot/reverse shot manner imaginable so almost none of the dramatic moments had any sort of impact on me. There's an extremely effective moment in the 3rd act that felt like Mann was finally adding some stakes to the whole thing by then it was too little too late for me.

The script here is painfully unremarkable and it rears its head in how it portrays its main character. Adam Driver is solid in the role as Enzo Ferrari, though I wouldn't rate it as one of his best performances, but I never really found the depiction of the character to be that compelling. It's established early on that Ferrari puts up a wall around everyone but as an audience member it put me at a distance from his character. I didn't think there were enough moments where his guard went down and we see what really drives him so as a result I just found him to be a bit of a rich egomaniac with motivations I didn't find to be that interesting. There's a love triangle that's set up with Penelope Cruz and Shailene Woodley's characters that almost felt like it should've been the scripts main focus but after a while it just fades into the background for the central race to take up more screen time. Driver and Cruz have good chemistry but I never really thought that Mann got to the heart of their relationship and the exposition that's given on this three way dynamic feels like it comes in the complete wrong order. I was just waiting for characters to find out information I already knew and it just kills the pacing and any impact that these reveals could've had.

I never would've guessed that Ferrari was a long time passion project for Michael Mann because nothing in the final product gives any sense of a vision for this story. It's totally unimpressive on a script and technical level and the few effective moments and impressive race sequences aren't enough to save the total bore that Ferrari ended up being as a whole.

A slow, meandering & yawn-inducing sports biopic about the Italian automotive mogul whose family name has been synonymous with speed, power & luxury, Ferrari intends to showcase the personal struggles & professional crisis of a man trying to keep his auto empire afloat only to end up halfway on both fronts. Lacking in horsepower, flat in structure, devoid of a well-oiled engine & also short of a full tank, Michael Mann's latest swerves & steers with no confidence, has no momentum or sense of direction, fails to create any adrenaline-fuelled moments even when the race is on, and is further marred by cold, distant & over-the-top performances, thus finishing as a bland & forgettable outing altogether.

For a film helmed by Michael Mann and starring Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz, I was expecting a lot more from this.

By the end, I didn't feel like I was much closer to Enzo Ferrari or his wife. I didn't come away with much more of an understanding or appreciation of the racing element. I didn't feel overly thrilled or engaged.

This all sounds a bit negative, but that's not to say there aren't positives to this film. Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz are really strong, even if they don't peel back the layers of the characters enough for me. However this is more of a criticism of the script than the performances. The racing scenes are well executed although could be a little more exciting and perhaps even shot a little better. Speaking of the direction, it is fine but I think there was potential to really get creative and design some thrilling set pieces. It probably didn't help that the pacing of this film was totally off, feeling much longer than it actually is, which reduced the impact of some of these scenes.

Overall I think this is a film of what could have been. There's an interesting story and an interesting man at the heart of all of this, but it just wasn't teased out enough.

As I saw on a YouTube video, when you are told you are going to watch a movie about Enzo Ferrari, you might think it will explain where did his car obsession come from, what happened to him after his son died, what was his rivalry with Maserati about, how did he manage to make such luxurious and aspirational cars. Sadly, none of these topics are addressed in this movie.

Although he was an interesting businessman, we seldom see anything behind his success. The movie only offers us some soap opera drama.

The acting is bland and the plot line lacks development. I was expecting so much more from this and I got white disappointed.

There are a couple films that come to mind when trying to judge how good Ferrari was. The first is "Napoleon". It is another biography that came out around the same time as this film. Each film needs the main character to capture the audience's interest. For both films, the dysfunctional marital relationship was a major narrative. Because of Joaquin Phoenix's legacy of gripping roles ("Joker"), he successfully embodied the main character. The film suffered for other reasons, but it kept my interest. "Ferrari" cast Adam Driver as the main character. I first saw Driver in "Midnight Special" as a quirky and interesting scientist. I really like Driver, and thought he was a good fit as the bad guy in the new Star Wars movies. However, I think someone else would have been a better fit as Ferrari. Driver doesn't exude power and leadership like the role needed. Someone who is bit older and more fits the physique. If this was made 10 years ago, someone like Christian Bale would've been a good fit.

The other film I can't help but compare "Ferrari" to is "Ford vs. Ferrari". Although it came out four years prior to this film, it is recent enough to gauge what is a better film about racing. "Ferrari" never pretended to be about racing, it is a biography of the man. Meanwhile "Ford vs Ferrari" is about racing. The movie centered more on the cars than the people. In "Ferrari", care is taken to give many of the supporting characters some depth. The downside is that the majority of the film focuses more on the people than the machines. For that reason, I preferred "Ford vs Ferrari". In truth that film features very little of Ferrari other than being the rival for Ford.

On the flipside, the driving scenes in the "Ferrari" are very dynamic without being gimmicky, and are a feast of sight and sound. The cinematography does a good job showing us vintage Italy. The dialogue could be cringe-worthy if one cared to scrutinize the Italian accents. In general, when rating this Micheal Mann film, I thought of "Public Enemies". That film follows John Dillinger, but has a different tone than this. Sadly, the tone here is very mild for "Ferrari", and the whole is not greater than the sum of the parts. This is mostly evident in the climax, in which no swelling of emotion takes place, at least not as intended. I give it a 5 out of 10.