It's 1957 and Enzo Ferrari, as portrayed by Adam Driver, has a lot on his mind. His wife (Penelope Cruz) is mad with grief over the death of their son; his mistress, Shailene Woodley, wants him to acknowledge their son so he can be confirmed; he's hired a new driver after the last one got himself killed, and he's distracted by his movie-star girlfriend; and his accountant informs him he is broke and he needs to get a wealthy corporate partner, which he can only do if one of his cars wins the thousand-mile Mille Miglia. Also, Orsi over at Maserati is in precisely the same position and seems to have a better team of racers.
Michael Mann is not known for character studies. His subject is the glitzy world and its seamy side, so this movie about Ferrari is a natural fit. The script makes it clear what his multitudinous problems are, and they keep increasing throughout the movie, while Adam Driver lets down his guard with no one one, and Miss Cruz gets to have the emotional fireworks. I am not fond of movies about racing, since most of the character development seems to consist of men in car moving gear controls and the audio engineer choosing vroom-vroom sounds from their audio libraries. However, this movie makes clear that Ferrari's one real passion is racing cars, and it's a series of real crises that he has to overcome. Considering the negligible story content of so many of this year's "For your consideration" titles, I'll say that it's easily worth your time in the theater seat.
Michael Mann is not known for character studies. His subject is the glitzy world and its seamy side, so this movie about Ferrari is a natural fit. The script makes it clear what his multitudinous problems are, and they keep increasing throughout the movie, while Adam Driver lets down his guard with no one one, and Miss Cruz gets to have the emotional fireworks. I am not fond of movies about racing, since most of the character development seems to consist of men in car moving gear controls and the audio engineer choosing vroom-vroom sounds from their audio libraries. However, this movie makes clear that Ferrari's one real passion is racing cars, and it's a series of real crises that he has to overcome. Considering the negligible story content of so many of this year's "For your consideration" titles, I'll say that it's easily worth your time in the theater seat.