FERRARI at New York Film Festival

by Jason Godbey

Ferrari is a biopic about former racecar driver and car magnate Enzo Ferrari. The story follows him during a pivotal time for himself and his company. Ferrari (Adam Driver) is holding on to the remnants of his marriage to Laura (Penelope Cruz). After tragically losing their only son to illness, their marriage hasn’t been the same.

As partners in business, they find themselves in danger of losing everything, due to Enzo’s insistence on building racecars without manufacturing and selling enough production cars to support the business. He’s told by his accountant that Ferrari racing team must win the Mille Miglia to push the company to the forefront in order to attract potential business partners and secure financing.

Further complicating Ferrari’s life are his mistress Lina (Shailene Woodley) and their son Piero who live in the next town over unbeknownst to Laura. She wants to Enzo to give Piero the Ferrari name at his confirmation. Ferrari has to walk a fine line between his wife/business partner and Lina and their son.

Driver plays Enzo as stoic and reserved, showing very little emotion. He’s built a wall around his feelings to protect himself from further heartache after suffering the loss of his son and several close friends. In the hands of a lesser actor, this could make for a flat affect and a flat performance, but Driver is able to bring us into the character’s world letting us empathize with him. Each brief moment of emotion has a powerful effect. It’s a real less-is-more interpretation that works masterfully.

Penelope Cruz brings her own special blend of strength, nuance, and charisma to Laura. She is a shrewd business woman, a partner to Enzo who helped him build the company. On the surface, she’s a tough Italian battle ax of a wife, but s Underneath her hard surface there is a mother still grieving for her son.

One of film’s greatest attributes is in what it doesn’t do. It doesn’t attempt to tell its subject’s entire life story. Too many times biopics attempt to distill a person’s life into two hours, and it’s both too much and not enough. We’re given hints of Ferrari’s past through brief flashbacks, but Director Michael Mann is able to tell us all we need to know about the characters without having to show us their lives from cradle to grave. He gets to the heart of the story by showing us their current conflict, knowing that it’s in times of strife that character is revealed.

Mann constructs the film with moments of drama juxtaposed with the action of cars speeding around the test tracks and racing cross-country. We even get a Godfather-esque sequence where a group of parishioners receive communion in church while a new driver test drives a car for Ferrari’s chief competitor, Masseratti.

For the racing action, we get extreme close-ups of drivers’ eyes, steering wheels and stick shifts. We’re right there, riding shotgun taking corners at high speed, hearing the roar of the engine, and feeling the vibration of each acceleration as we are propelled into danger. Occasionally Mann pulls back to show us the geography of the race with aerial shots swooping by as cars barrel down the road. One cold hear audible gasps from the audience each time cars would collide or go flying off the track.

There’s also Michael Mann’s signature attention to detail. You can practically taste the wine and the rustic Italian cuisine at the dinner table and smell the oil and gasoline as the cars rush by us.. This movie is a car lover’s dream. Each vehicle is a work of art from the engine to the paint job.

I would definitely recommend Ferrari. If you love classic cars and racing, this film is a must-see, but first and foremost, this is a character-driven drama. It’s incredibly well-made and is as moving as it is exciting. Ferrari is set for a theatrical release on December 25th.

Originally published at http://behindtherabbitproductions.wordpress.com on October 14, 2023.