"Ferrari" -- Movie Review

 

On the closing night of the 61^st New York Film Festival, I attended the North American Premiere of the biographical drama, “Ferrari”, directed by Michael Mann and starring Adam Driver in the title role, Penélope Cruz and  Shailene Woodley. 

Synopsis

When race car manufacturer Enzo Ferrari is at risk of losing his business and his marriage, which one will he choose to preserve?

Story

In 1957, Enzo Ferrari (Driver) is at something of a crossroads professionally; the Italian car manufacturing company he started a decade earlier with financial help from his wife Laura (Cruz) faces possible bankruptcy.  As a former race car driver himself, he learned enough about the inner workings of these machines to start his own business; he set out to build the best and fastest race cars the world has ever seen.  What he didn’t take into consideration is that if he only built those and not commercial passenger cars that the general public could purchase, he would severely limit business opportunities for his company. 

As if that weren’t bad enough, Ferrari is facing a crossroads in his personal life as well; Laura knows he has been cheating on her with at least one other woman.  Their marriage started to suffer after their son died following a long illness.  Unknown to Laura, he met Lina (Woodley); they began an affair and eventually she wound up giving him a son, who would go on to become his heir.  Laura feels humiliated and disrespected and isn’t shy about letting Enzo know her true feelings.  The only power she holds over him is the fact that as an initial investor in his company, she holds a substantial amount of stock – as a result, he can’t sell to Ford as planned without her say-so.

Ferrari recognizes the final opportunity for his company’s redemption is the Mille Miglia – a dangerous thousand mile cross-country race through Italy.  With that in mind, he enters a team of drivers to race various model Ferrari-manufactured cars.  While some exit the race early due to mechanical failures, he still has two drivers racing:  one is Piero (Patrick Dempsey), a veteran race car driver and the other is De Portago (Gabriel Leone), a younger driver with a glamorous reputation and a favorite of kids who follow the sport. But when one of them has a catastrophic accident that may result in the end of the company, can the other racer come to the rescue?

Review

Michael Mann has a tendency to make highly stylized films – the old television series “Miami Vice” may be the best example, but personal favorites include “Heat” and “Thief”.  In his latest, “Ferrari”, it is no different; in once sense, he’s very much in his zone in the way that the visuals and sound of the racing scenes are shot – they’ll set your pulse pounding either out of the thrill of excitement or the anxiety of the danger.  If you want to see the movie based on that alone, it would be a good choice, especially if you don’t know much about Enzo Ferrari’s story.  Outside of the racing scenes, unfortunately, there’s not much more to recommend. 

“Ferrari” tries to balance the professional challenges and personal conflicts at a time in the race car manufacturer’s life when he fears he’s about to lose both his company and his marriage – quite possibly one causing the other.  The problem here is that there is only a limited amount of empathy one can have in either, which results in little emotional investment in the character or the story itself.  Enzo Ferrari is at risk of losing his company for the same reason he’s at risk of losing his wife Laura – he’s an arrogant, narcissistic egomaniac.  In this way, he’s like the Jake LaMotta character Robert DeNiro played in “Raging Bull”, except that LaMotta got his comeuppance in the end, while Ferrari seems neither chastened nor punished.     

There was an interview with Director Michael Mann and the main cast following the screening.  Mann said that he had been working on this film for decades; an initial draft of a script had been co-written with fellow director, the late Sydney Pollack.  Adam Driver was asked about researching the role and said that it only helps so much, but that at some point, you have to stop because it only winds up getting in the way of the performance.  Penélope Cruz felt an extra sense of responsibility in her portrayal of Ferrari’s wife Laura because she knew that Laura had a reputation for being difficult; her research involved reading love letters between Laura and Enzo.