"Ferrari" is a biographical drama film based on the biography "Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races, the Machine" by Brock Yates. Directed by Michael Mann ("The Last of the Mohicans", "Heat", "Collateral") and starring Adam Driver, Penelope Cruz, and Shailene Woodley, it shows the intriguing inner dealings of man through both his business ventures and his private life.
In 1957 in Italy, sports car manufacturing company Ferrari is facing major financial difficulties. While coping with this predicament, the company's founder, Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver), is also dealing with his own personal problems, with the recent death of his first son Dino, the deterioration of his marriage to his wife Laura (Penelope Cruz), and his double life with his mistress Lina (Shailene Woodley) and his second son Piero. As these issues grow further out of control, Enzo decides to gamble the entire company's future on entering his elite racing team into the Mille Miglia, a 1,000 mile summertime race that stretches around the roads of Italy. With the race fast approaching, Enzo works around the clock to get his team ready for the big day, all while trying to maintain stability within his private life.
It is common knowledge that Ferrari often ranks high on the lists of companies that are generally well regarded by luxury sports car enthusiasts. Since their first line of road cars went into production in 1947, Ferraris have endured on in popularity even to this day, particularly due to their frequent participation in numerous notable racing events. The founder and namesake for this company was racing-driver-turned-businessman Enzo Ferrari, whose intense management decisions were what helped the company out of some early financial strife. The story of what took place during this time is told to us in Michael Mann's film "Ferrari", a stylised biopic that shows this man working tirelessly to keep his company afloat.
The film's most notable strength is in the way in which it depicts Enzo Ferrari not as some perfect messianic hero but instead as a flawed human being with dubious morals. At the beginning, we see Enzo travelling to a cemetery to visit the tomb that holds his deceased young son Dino, who had only died a year earlier. While he mourns his child, we see Enzo make a promise to both Dino and himself to ensure the legacy of their family name enduring on for the longest time. Afterwards, we are shown that Enzo is living a double life; firstly with his marriage to Laura, who has grown to resent him due to her husband's failing business, and secondly his relationship with his mistress Lina, of which has produced another son, Piero. The film makes it clear that Enzo is not a morally sensible person, wishing to keep up the charade of a stable marriage while still maintaining an affair with a younger, more relatable woman. In most other cases, it would be hard to feel any sympathy for someone like Enzo, but as the film progresses we see that his behaviour has come about as the result of the unorthodox managerial practices he has created for his company.
Desperate to save his brand from bankruptcy, Enzo resorts to more extreme methods of putting the company name on the map. With the Mille Miglia only six months away, Enzo enters his team of racers in this prestigious event, which requires them all to work harder than they have ever worked before. We watch as Enzo's racers are pushed to their limits, driving at top speed around custom made tracks, often putting themselves in danger of overshooting a corner and crashing. Without revealing too much here, there were a number of incidents that actually required some medical assistance for many of Enzo's unluckiest drivers. Yet despite these setbacks, Enzo remained determined to keep his drivers in the race, even if that meant some of them going home in a body bag. The interesting thing here is that none of these racers seem to complain about the dangerous working conditions and go along with their boss's wishes anyway. This appears to indicate that they have a huge amount of respect for Enzo's company and are even willing to risk their own lives to help it succeed.
Under Michael Mann's direction, the dialogue scenes are handled with the reasonable amount of care, although things do tend to feel a bit soap opera-ish at times. For instance, there are a number of parts where we see Enzo and his wife Laura arguing over what direction he should be taking the company, whether it involves him doing his own thing or following her advice the whole time. Through this, we see why Enzo and Laura's marriage is failing, as they are often at each other's throats disagreeing over various things. Mann uses minimal lighting during these argument scenes, perhaps to show that their once happy marriage is a dark shadow of its former self. This is a common directorial trademark of Mann's films, as he has utilised this to his advantage in many of his previous works, like "Heat" and "Collateral". The problem here is that these scenes aren't featured enough in the story to leave their desired impression. I never felt like I properly understood why Enzo and Laura were often disagreeing with each other, aside from the usual sexist jabs at her being a woman.
Another thing Michael Mann does well here is the way he shoots the racing scenes. Though they aren't as intense as your typical "Fast and the Furious" affair, they are still quite entertaining to watch. I enjoyed watching as each racer tried to pass the other in a more realistic fashion, as though they are actually trying to make it to the finish line in record time. There's also the added risk that a car could flip over and crash or overshoot a corner and fly off a cliff, especially with the less safe engineering available in that decade. What's interesting is that Mann appears to be conveying that Enzo is treating these races like they are a business decision rather than a pleasurable form of entertainment. In other words, what others perceive as fun is a more serious state of affairs to a hard-thinking entrepreneur like him. This is an unusual departure from your usual movie with fast car racing, but it nonetheless works in the film's favour.
In the lead role, Adam Driver does a fine enough job as Enzo Ferrari, a man whose business life and private life did not balance out the way he may have hoped. He stands out primarily during the parts where he is trying to keep his secret affair with Lina away from his wife Laura. Driver's performance is never too intense nor is it too subdued, he shows just the right amount of emotion whenever it is needed of him. One scene where I thought this worked well was when he is talking to Lina about how much he fell in love with her, even though he is still married to Laura. Here, he reveals that although he already has a wife, Enzo's true love is for Lina and what his spouse cannot give him on an emotional level is what drives him to keep this affair going behind Laura's back. At his core, while Enzo is doing some morally terrible things that would cause most of us to dislike him, he is still a vulnerable human being with emotional desires that he wants fulfilled.
However, I think Penelope Cruz steals the show in every scene she is in as Enzo's wife Laura. Each time she is on screen, Cruz seems to be an intimidating presence looming over Driver, as she plays Laura like a determined businesswoman, reluctant to blindly go along with her husband's ideas to save the company. In one scene, she displays a complete lack of fear by pointing a gun at her husband, which he ironically states he gave to her as a gift to protect herself from anything that can be considered dangerous. Though some of her dialogue was a bit repetitive, especially during the film's third act, Cruz definitely made the most of all the material given to her and outshone her co-star many times.
I just wish the same could be said about Shailene Woodley as Enzo's mistress Lina, who does very little in the film other than look happy to see him and ponder how long he can keep her a secret from his wife. There aren't nearly enough moments of Enzo and Lina together that convinced me why he picked her over Laura. Sure, Lina is more mellow than Laura, but she doesn't seem to have any other emotional connection that would cause him to become attracted to her other than her physical appearance. Had the film delved deeper into Enzo and Lina's relationship, it could have made for a great love triangle with the backdrop of racing cars. Instead, it's a standard story about a failing business and failing marriage.
Although it doesn't quite stick the landing in the way it could have, "Ferrari" still manages to provide some entertaining moments thanks to its lead cast and impressive directorial decisions. The performances of both Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz in addition to Michael Mann's direction during the racing scenes all make this film very watchable even during its weakest moments. I suppose the blame can be placed on Troy Kennedy Martin's subpar screenplay, who according to some research actually died in 2009, making this a posthumous release. Regardless, if you're enthusiastic about Ferrari and a brief history of their initial hardships, then this film may be worth at least one viewing.
I rate it 7/10.
In 1957 in Italy, sports car manufacturing company Ferrari is facing major financial difficulties. While coping with this predicament, the company's founder, Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver), is also dealing with his own personal problems, with the recent death of his first son Dino, the deterioration of his marriage to his wife Laura (Penelope Cruz), and his double life with his mistress Lina (Shailene Woodley) and his second son Piero. As these issues grow further out of control, Enzo decides to gamble the entire company's future on entering his elite racing team into the Mille Miglia, a 1,000 mile summertime race that stretches around the roads of Italy. With the race fast approaching, Enzo works around the clock to get his team ready for the big day, all while trying to maintain stability within his private life.
It is common knowledge that Ferrari often ranks high on the lists of companies that are generally well regarded by luxury sports car enthusiasts. Since their first line of road cars went into production in 1947, Ferraris have endured on in popularity even to this day, particularly due to their frequent participation in numerous notable racing events. The founder and namesake for this company was racing-driver-turned-businessman Enzo Ferrari, whose intense management decisions were what helped the company out of some early financial strife. The story of what took place during this time is told to us in Michael Mann's film "Ferrari", a stylised biopic that shows this man working tirelessly to keep his company afloat.
The film's most notable strength is in the way in which it depicts Enzo Ferrari not as some perfect messianic hero but instead as a flawed human being with dubious morals. At the beginning, we see Enzo travelling to a cemetery to visit the tomb that holds his deceased young son Dino, who had only died a year earlier. While he mourns his child, we see Enzo make a promise to both Dino and himself to ensure the legacy of their family name enduring on for the longest time. Afterwards, we are shown that Enzo is living a double life; firstly with his marriage to Laura, who has grown to resent him due to her husband's failing business, and secondly his relationship with his mistress Lina, of which has produced another son, Piero. The film makes it clear that Enzo is not a morally sensible person, wishing to keep up the charade of a stable marriage while still maintaining an affair with a younger, more relatable woman. In most other cases, it would be hard to feel any sympathy for someone like Enzo, but as the film progresses we see that his behaviour has come about as the result of the unorthodox managerial practices he has created for his company.
Desperate to save his brand from bankruptcy, Enzo resorts to more extreme methods of putting the company name on the map. With the Mille Miglia only six months away, Enzo enters his team of racers in this prestigious event, which requires them all to work harder than they have ever worked before. We watch as Enzo's racers are pushed to their limits, driving at top speed around custom made tracks, often putting themselves in danger of overshooting a corner and crashing. Without revealing too much here, there were a number of incidents that actually required some medical assistance for many of Enzo's unluckiest drivers. Yet despite these setbacks, Enzo remained determined to keep his drivers in the race, even if that meant some of them going home in a body bag. The interesting thing here is that none of these racers seem to complain about the dangerous working conditions and go along with their boss's wishes anyway. This appears to indicate that they have a huge amount of respect for Enzo's company and are even willing to risk their own lives to help it succeed.
Under Michael Mann's direction, the dialogue scenes are handled with the reasonable amount of care, although things do tend to feel a bit soap opera-ish at times. For instance, there are a number of parts where we see Enzo and his wife Laura arguing over what direction he should be taking the company, whether it involves him doing his own thing or following her advice the whole time. Through this, we see why Enzo and Laura's marriage is failing, as they are often at each other's throats disagreeing over various things. Mann uses minimal lighting during these argument scenes, perhaps to show that their once happy marriage is a dark shadow of its former self. This is a common directorial trademark of Mann's films, as he has utilised this to his advantage in many of his previous works, like "Heat" and "Collateral". The problem here is that these scenes aren't featured enough in the story to leave their desired impression. I never felt like I properly understood why Enzo and Laura were often disagreeing with each other, aside from the usual sexist jabs at her being a woman.
Another thing Michael Mann does well here is the way he shoots the racing scenes. Though they aren't as intense as your typical "Fast and the Furious" affair, they are still quite entertaining to watch. I enjoyed watching as each racer tried to pass the other in a more realistic fashion, as though they are actually trying to make it to the finish line in record time. There's also the added risk that a car could flip over and crash or overshoot a corner and fly off a cliff, especially with the less safe engineering available in that decade. What's interesting is that Mann appears to be conveying that Enzo is treating these races like they are a business decision rather than a pleasurable form of entertainment. In other words, what others perceive as fun is a more serious state of affairs to a hard-thinking entrepreneur like him. This is an unusual departure from your usual movie with fast car racing, but it nonetheless works in the film's favour.
In the lead role, Adam Driver does a fine enough job as Enzo Ferrari, a man whose business life and private life did not balance out the way he may have hoped. He stands out primarily during the parts where he is trying to keep his secret affair with Lina away from his wife Laura. Driver's performance is never too intense nor is it too subdued, he shows just the right amount of emotion whenever it is needed of him. One scene where I thought this worked well was when he is talking to Lina about how much he fell in love with her, even though he is still married to Laura. Here, he reveals that although he already has a wife, Enzo's true love is for Lina and what his spouse cannot give him on an emotional level is what drives him to keep this affair going behind Laura's back. At his core, while Enzo is doing some morally terrible things that would cause most of us to dislike him, he is still a vulnerable human being with emotional desires that he wants fulfilled.
However, I think Penelope Cruz steals the show in every scene she is in as Enzo's wife Laura. Each time she is on screen, Cruz seems to be an intimidating presence looming over Driver, as she plays Laura like a determined businesswoman, reluctant to blindly go along with her husband's ideas to save the company. In one scene, she displays a complete lack of fear by pointing a gun at her husband, which he ironically states he gave to her as a gift to protect herself from anything that can be considered dangerous. Though some of her dialogue was a bit repetitive, especially during the film's third act, Cruz definitely made the most of all the material given to her and outshone her co-star many times.
I just wish the same could be said about Shailene Woodley as Enzo's mistress Lina, who does very little in the film other than look happy to see him and ponder how long he can keep her a secret from his wife. There aren't nearly enough moments of Enzo and Lina together that convinced me why he picked her over Laura. Sure, Lina is more mellow than Laura, but she doesn't seem to have any other emotional connection that would cause him to become attracted to her other than her physical appearance. Had the film delved deeper into Enzo and Lina's relationship, it could have made for a great love triangle with the backdrop of racing cars. Instead, it's a standard story about a failing business and failing marriage.
Although it doesn't quite stick the landing in the way it could have, "Ferrari" still manages to provide some entertaining moments thanks to its lead cast and impressive directorial decisions. The performances of both Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz in addition to Michael Mann's direction during the racing scenes all make this film very watchable even during its weakest moments. I suppose the blame can be placed on Troy Kennedy Martin's subpar screenplay, who according to some research actually died in 2009, making this a posthumous release. Regardless, if you're enthusiastic about Ferrari and a brief history of their initial hardships, then this film may be worth at least one viewing.
I rate it 7/10.