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.
