Ferrari

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.