Before cars were status symbols parked in McMansion driveways, they were symbols of daring and speed. Engineers tinkered under the hoods while drivers put rubber to road, chasing glory between the turns. Enzo Ferrari lived for this thrill. When he racked up wins on the track in the 1920s, fans knew him as a man obsessed with going faster. But even after starting his luxury car company in 1947, his passion never dimmed.
The new film Ferrari takes us back to 1957 Modena, when Ferrari’s namesake company hit the skids. starring Adam Driver as il Commendatore himself, director Michael Mann focuses on one pivotal summer when Enzo faces crisis on all fronts: his marriage, his mistress, his company, and the racing team he lives for. As rival Maserati threatens his dominance and cars fly out of the factory far too slowly, Enzo needs a big racing win to save face and make a deal.
Yet juggling life’s gears proves tough when Enzo’s wife Laura (Penélope Cruz) discovers his decade-long affair and second son. As she explodes with raw fury, Enzo tunnels his attention towards the upcoming Mille Miglia road race. Mann captures the guts and gasoline required as drivers take deadly risks testing Enzo’s slick machines. But when the checkered flag flies, both business and family require reconciliation.
Ferrari shows us many sides of this complex icon through the lens of business, love, and our perennial need for speed. Mann’s glossy biopic highlights personal risks versus rewards, portraying Enzo as flawed genius who treated cars and people with the same combustible passion.
Racing Towards Ruin
The scent of engine oil and melodies of La Traviata fill Modena in 1957, the postcard heartland of Enzo Ferrari’s burgeoning empire. Played with clipped intensity by Adam Driver, Enzo begins the film ensconced in his secret second life. He slips from mistress Lina Lardi’s bed at dawn to sneak home before his estranged wife Laura wakes. Little does he know Laura (Penélope Cruz, radiating betrayal) now spies on his coming and goings, pistol in hand.
At the Ferrari factory, Enzo faces rising debt despite luxury car orders pouring in. He rejects calls to merge with Fiat or Ford, desperate to retain control of his namesake company. But wife Laura holds the power as majority shareholder, enraged over endless affairs now including a second son with Lina (Shailene Woodley).
With tabloid vultures circling as accidents pile up, Enzo Eyes the upcoming Mille Miglia race as a saving grace. Victory could attract investors to fund his true love – the Scuderia Ferrari racing team tearing up the Grand Prix circuit. To stack the deck, Enzo enlists Italian legend Piero Truffi (Patrick Dempsey), reliable Brit Peter Collins (Jack O’Connell), and Spanish playboy Alfonso De Portago (Gabriel Leone), his girlfriend Linda Christian by his side.
Over thousand-mile open roads from Brescia to Rome and back, Enzo’s “little furies on wheels” vie with rival Maserati as cheering crowds line streets ablaze with Ferrari red. But fate has little regard for Enzo’s aspiration. A violent crash extinguishes one star driver’s life in a chilling instant. Enzo soldiers on, seeking the win to salvage his legacy despite blood on the road. For this complex antihero, there are always more drivers willing to flirt with death for a glimpse of glory. But the race suspension gives Laura time to confront the reality of her tattered marriage. Enzo must reckon with the collateral damage risk brings – both on and off the course.
Ruthless Ambition and Tragic Consequences
At its core, Ferrari explores the multifaceted nature of ambition through the lens of its complex protagonist. Enzo Ferrari is portrayed as a titan of industry who lets nothing obstruct his vision or the Ferrari name. Adam Driver captures his icy ruthlessness as he tunnels on the next race, the next innovation, pushing aside emotional pleas in pursuit of glory.
Yet while callous with employees, Enzo shows glimmers of humanity. He laments deaths under his watch, visiting the grave of his own son Alfredo. When driver Eugenio Castellotti perishes testing a car, Enzo replaces him instantly to maintain dominance. But alone at night, his stoic veneer cracks with repressed grief. He built an empire on daring drivers dance with death, unable to reconcile the collateral damage of high-speed ambition.
Enzo’s strained marriage with Laura Ferrari further humanizes his difficult persona. Penélope Cruz devastatingly charts Laura’s crumbling faith in her philandering husband as she discovers his longtime mistress Lina and hidden son Piero. Enzo seems confused by her fury over broken vows–like a mechanic fine-tuning an engine, he struggles to understand the emotional needs of hearts.
Ultimately Ferrari leaves its protagonist more contradiction than resolution. Enzo sacrifies so much at the altar of speed, willing to burn any bridge to stay king of the road. Mann abstains from judgement, simply presenting this defining summer when even Enzo’s formidable talents met their limits. We see him as neither hero nor antihero, but simply a man so fixated on the checkered flag, he can’t see the wake of mangled relationships left behind.
Mann’s Motor City Masterpiece
In chronicling Enzo Ferrari’s most pivotal summer, director Michael Mann returns to his vintage Detroit roots. The auteur behind gritty gems like Heat and Collateral captures the gasoline fumes and grime beneath Ferrari’s slick veneer. Long takes bask in the italian countryside while his camera shakes and zooms with each hairpin turn, using dynamic visual language to place us right behind the wheel.
Ever the perfectionist, Mann’s propulsive style focuses on authentic textures. Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt (Fincher’s Mank) lenses Modena awash in Ferrari red, juxtaposing the magic of mythmaking with life’s harsher crashes. Details like priest cassocks, hectic factories, and crowds blessing speed demons with crosses teleports us to a very specific mood and moment.
The racing itself provides relentless exhilaration. Tight over-the-should shots and roaring engines inject adrenaline straight into film stock. Blink and you’ll miss Ferrari’s Formula One cars whipping down country roads in their Mille Miglia quest, vibrant blurs leaving gobsmacked families and livestock behind. One sequence follows driver Alfonso from the starting line to his crashing, bloody demise miles away, told entirely through unbroken point-of-view. Here we don’t just watch danger, we inhabit it.
Mann’s stripped-down narrative drops us deep into emotional states over plot mechanics. Negative space sharpens moments between Enzo and the women who define him. Cruz turns secret-spilling scenes with smoldering restraint, Woodley’s cabinetside confrontation compelling despite thin character. Even accents waver–but closeups exposing inner life trump all.
Ferrari shows a master observer returning to parse the meaning of speed, this time through an icon who injected risk into automobile DNA. Detailing this turning point summer, Mann applies mature precision despite uneven strokes. For driving drama adoring gearheads, that purity of purpose should shatter speed limits.
In Pole Position
Zooming through checkered cinematic history, racing films celebrate man and machine while testing literal and metaphorical limits. Ford v Ferrari pitted auto titans against each other in the quest for speed supremacy. Rush dove deep on the rivalry between daredevils Niki Lauda and James Hunt. Now Ferrari joins the winner’s circle by gunning directly for the mythic man behind the horse logo.
While revving on familiar octanes of death-defying dramatics, director Mann stands apart by centralizing ferocious emotion over polished narrative. Stripping color for studied planes of character crisis, he crafts Ferrari as deliberate tone poem punctuated by adrenaline. Cruz and Driver share the screen with combative chemistry, their verbal wreckage more compelling than any twisted sheet metal.
By narrowing focus onto one historic summer rather than career retrospective, Mann trades traditional payoffs for lingering mood. We speed through poignant themes of ambition and regret more than events themselves. Ferrari emerges a wounded protagonist, paying for glory days with broken bonds. For Mann, how history’s winningest losers grapple with costs counts over crosses crossed.
If side plots sputter, Mann’s racing capture exhilarates as pure visual theatre. Clear eyes reflect blurred environments careening by, visceral sequences that make you grip imaginary wheels. When De Portago meets his maker, violence shocks with cruel randomness. Safety advances since these madmen duelled death for patents and plaques do not diminish awe at their gambles.
While uneven, Ferrari conquers cliché with textured attitude and existential angst. Among auto sagas fixated on ring history, this entry stands apart. Trading slick triumphalism for revealing self-reckoning, Ferrari earns pole position for revealing riches within one man’s need for speed.
Legacy in the Making
In revving up Enzo Ferrari’s origin tale, Michael Mann downshifts expectations with his stately, reflective approach. Forgoing the fanfare of a career victory lap, Mann focuses on the personal costs of ambition–when engines and egos combust beyond control. Unafraid of ambiguity, he abstains from lionizing his subject, instead portraying the untreated fallout from fatal crashes both literal and emotional.
Amidst Mann’s moody brushstrokes glow moments of brilliance, none more captivating than the vicious Mille Miglia that nearly destroyed Ferrari’s namesake company. Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt lenses death-defying racing as visual art, his dizzying point-of-view work dropping us into the cockpit of history. These propulsive scenes will leave gearheads gripped and grasping imaginary stick shifts.
What racing provides in kinetic action, Penélope Cruz doubles down in emotional depth. Her Laura simmers with the betrayal of a shattered marriage, holding her own against a magnetic Adam Driver. Their verbal wreckage and teary shrapnel eclipse flimsier subplots, proving Mann’s talent for wringing revelations from crisis.
Uneven pacing and unclear motivations at times stall momentum, reflecting the unresolved nature of its mercurial antihero. But in leaving judgments up to the audience, Mann avoids simplistic hagiography. For fans of complex personalities caught between legacy and loss of control, Ferrari delivers a uniquely provocative ride–bumps, warts and all.
The Review
Ferrari
"Ferrari" roars onto the cinematic landscape with a visceral portrayal of ambition, tempered by the cost of human relationships. Director Michael Mann, in his hallmark style, masterfully blends the raw energy of racing with the nuanced exploration of Enzo Ferrari's complex psyche. Adam Driver delivers an electrifying performance, embodying Enzo's relentless pursuit of speed and supremacy, while Penélope Cruz, as Laura Ferrari, adds a profound emotional depth to the narrative. The film's cinematography is a visual symphony, capturing the essence of 1950s Modena and the electrifying world of racing with stunning authenticity. While occasionally the pacing stumbles, and subplots seem underdeveloped, these are minor detours in an otherwise thrilling ride. Mann's unflinching examination of the protagonist's flawed humanity elevates "Ferrari" beyond a mere biopic, crafting a story that resonates with anyone captivated by the dual forces of passion and ambition. This film is not just about the legend of Ferrari but a meditation on the price of greatness, making it a standout in the genre of racing films and biographical dramas.
PROS
- Adam Driver's compelling portrayal of Enzo Ferrari.
- Stunning cinematography capturing the essence of racing.
- Emotional depth, particularly through Penélope Cruz’s performance.
- Exhilarating and authentic racing scenes.
- Detailed attention to the historical setting.
CONS
- Uneven pacing in the narrative.
- Some underdeveloped subplots.
- Lack of clarity in certain plot points.
