Ferrari – Film Review
by Frank L.

Director – Michael Mann
Writers – Troy Kennedy Martin, Brock Yates
Stars – Adam Driver, Shailene Woodley, Giuseppe Festinese

The action is set in Modena, Italy in 1957. Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) is embroiled in a world which is complicated for him on both the personal and commercial level. He and his wife Laura (Penelope Cruz) are both devastated by the death of their 24-year-old son Dino the previous year. While Enzo is the engineering genius behind the Ferrari racing car enterprise, she is the commercial brains which has kept the show on the road. However, the enterprise now faces major challenges both financially and on the road from their rivals, in particular, Maserati. However, the marriage between Enzo and Laura has unfortunately reached a fork in the road as Enzo has been living a secretive double life with Lina (Shailene Woodley) with whom he has had a son Piero. Meanwhile, the business of Ferrari has to be run and the cars must be successful. Enzo needs drivers with a lust to win to drive the several Ferraris which are to compete in a gruelling 1,000-kilometre road race known as the Mille Miglia.

Adam Driver as Enzo encapsulates the single-minded engineer who is determined to win at all costs and fully conscious that given the speed of the cars, mortality is a constant presence. However, Enzo expects his drivers to be without fear – to win is everything. Driver combines this clear-sightedness with the moral complexities that have arisen with Laura and Lina and the contentious issue of the status of Piero in the scheme of things. Driver is far less single-minded when confronting Laura and Lina. Driver balances his professional single-mindedness with his personal conflicts. One wonders how Enzo manages to juggle these myriad issues. That juggling is made more remarkable given the all-powerful performance by Cruz. Here is a woman who has been rejected and is no longer in the driving seat as regards her husband and she vents her spleen with fury and guile. Woodley provides a steady, more domestic character, but she too demands recognition and is not content to be in the shadows.

This magnificent eternal triangle of emotions is played out against the backdrop of these splendid, glamourous motor cars hurtling around Italy with an occasional spectacular race. What is gob-smacking to see is how close spectators were to the speeding machines and how little protection – a few bales of straw – there was in the event of something going wrong… and something does go wrong.

Ferrari works on many levels. The direction by Michael Mann recreates the glamour and visual sophistication of nineteen-fifties Italy. It is a cornucopia of colour. The complexities of the relationships between the three main characters outweigh the motor car challenges of the Mille Miglia but those challenges add an intense competitive spice. This is a film to be savoured for its visual beauty and the impressive performances by Driver, Cruz and Woodley. It has a good story to tell and it tells it with passion.