Ferrari

This felt sadly dreadful to me, for the most part. Ferrari is a film where it feels like very few people involved cared about what they were making. On paper, the idea to focus on one brief period of time was a good one, rather than trying to capture a single figure's life story. Adam Driver is probably my favorite actor who's risen to prominence since 2010, and Michael Mann's a filmmaker whose work I generally enjoy. The idea of them teaming up to make a movie sounded promising, but the execution here was just lifeless and strangely amateur.

Much of the film's shot with a floaty, aimless camera that frames things strangely in an attempt to look unique, or because of simple incompetence; the way it sometimes shakes and drifts or zooms in and out seemingly by accident. The fact some scenes abruptly end and other scenes just linger for what feels like forever. I hated the way this looked and felt. I have no idea what Mann's going for here, or if he's simply lost his touch as a filmmaker.

Actors look either confused or bored - sometimes both - for the entire film. I have no idea what I'm supposed to care about when it comes to Enzo Ferrari as a figure. Maybe Adam Driver captured his essence well, but if so, his essence is boring and I don't know why they made a film about him. There's no real pacing or engaging build in the narrative, actors mumble their lines, and the dialogue I could make out tended to sound weirdly uninspired. Penelope Cruz felt like she was done particularly dirty by the lackluster material she was given to work with. It just felt like one boring scene after one boring scene after another boring scene.

The final act is watchable and saves the film from being an outright failure. Ferrari has a stupidly high budget, but I think much of it went into capturing some of those fairly stunning race sequences. Everything else was so dull, lifeless, directionless, and shockingly amateur, though. It's a surprising mess of a film.

Watched this and thought to myself wonder what budget was used, after finding out it cost 96 million I have to question where all the money went. The storyline drags and is very boring, some of the car scenes look terrible and most of the acting is very average.

It is very weird to make a movie about Enzo and only include a tiny piece of his life, there was a lot more to this man than one race and a love child. So much more in his life that would have made sense to make a movie about.

I really question sometimes movie studios and who makes the decisions on what to spend money on. In particular the car accident scenes are woeful, $96 mil and this is what they came up with? Pretty sure if you gave me that much I could make a better movie.

In the surface, Ferrari appears to be a well-directed, well-acted and adrenaline fuelled with excellent racing sequences. And yet, throughout the film, I couldn't help but feel disinterested and dissatisfied. This film has all the elements to be a slam dunk and yet I never felt attached to Enzo Ferrari and his struggles.

The performances are decent overall. Unfortunately, I was most disappointed by Adam Driver as the titular character. He never showcases the great range that I know he is capable with. His Enzo Ferrari is very reserved and somewhat bland. It's not helped that he is speaking English while attempting an Italian accent. If Chernobyl (2019) can get away with all English dialogue, then I feel you can do that here. It would certainly allow Driver to reach greater levels of acting. The saviour of this film is certainly Penélope Cruz. She delivers an excellent performance as Laura and I wish she got more screen time.

But if you're here for the racing, the film does delivers. It's few and far between, but the third act is a long, intense race with great sound design and editing. It's a shame that you're not invested in any of the racers since the film doesn't characterise any of them. It means the climax of the film doesn't hit as hard as it probably should. It's certainly shocking and brutal but it's hard to stay immersed when the violence is so over the top and the CGI is not quite great.

Overall, Ferrari feels like a film that could've been better. The characters could've been better, the story could've covered a more interesting part of Enzo Ferrari's life and the acting could've been more. I left this film not feeling like I did not know Enzo Ferrari. It's a film that perhaps is not for me, but I can see how others enjoy it.

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.

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.