There are a couple films that come to mind when trying to judge how good Ferrari was. The first is "Napoleon". It is another biography that came out around the same time as this film. Each film needs the main character to capture the audience's interest. For both films, the dysfunctional marital relationship was a major narrative. Because of Joaquin Phoenix's legacy of gripping roles ("Joker"), he successfully embodied the main character. The film suffered for other reasons, but it kept my interest. "Ferrari" cast Adam Driver as the main character. I first saw Driver in "Midnight Special" as a quirky and interesting scientist. I really like Driver, and thought he was a good fit as the bad guy in the new Star Wars movies. However, I think someone else would have been a better fit as Ferrari. Driver doesn't exude power and leadership like the role needed. Someone who is bit older and more fits the physique. If this was made 10 years ago, someone like Christian Bale would've been a good fit.
The other film I can't help but compare "Ferrari" to is "Ford vs. Ferrari". Although it came out four years prior to this film, it is recent enough to gauge what is a better film about racing. "Ferrari" never pretended to be about racing, it is a biography of the man. Meanwhile "Ford vs Ferrari" is about racing. The movie centered more on the cars than the people. In "Ferrari", care is taken to give many of the supporting characters some depth. The downside is that the majority of the film focuses more on the people than the machines. For that reason, I preferred "Ford vs Ferrari". In truth that film features very little of Ferrari other than being the rival for Ford.
On the flipside, the driving scenes in the "Ferrari" are very dynamic without being gimmicky, and are a feast of sight and sound. The cinematography does a good job showing us vintage Italy. The dialogue could be cringe-worthy if one cared to scrutinize the Italian accents. In general, when rating this Micheal Mann film, I thought of "Public Enemies". That film follows John Dillinger, but has a different tone than this. Sadly, the tone here is very mild for "Ferrari", and the whole is not greater than the sum of the parts. This is mostly evident in the climax, in which no swelling of emotion takes place, at least not as intended. I give it a 5 out of 10.
