2023 has been the year of the biopic. The year may be the successful blueprint that could ignite a trend. Each year, several biopics are released. Some are good. Some are not. In 2023, it has often felt like a new biopic was set for release each week. Some of the better ones were The Iron Claw, Dumb Money, Oppenheimer, Blackberry, Tetris, Maestro, Air, and Sound of Freedom. At some point, there was biopic overload, with films like Golda, Big George Foreman, Rise, Chevalier, Rustin, and Nyad getting lost in the shuffle. Rustin and Nyad are receiving Oscar Buzz for leading acting performances. Yet, if not for this recognition, each film likely would have been missed by the public without even knowing the film existed.
Michael Mann’s (Heat, The Insider) Ferrari fell victim to biopic fatigue. Usually, the heavy-hitting, award-contending hopefuls have November or December release dates. Ferrari has respectable Rotten Tomatoes scores (73% critics, 74% audience) and a decent 6.8 IMDB rating, yet it will fail to earn $35 million worldwide. With a $95 million budget, Ferrari is one of the year’s biggest flops. It’s disappointing because this is a great film.
I am the biggest fan of Adam Driver (Paterson, House of Gucci). He’s long been heralded as the next great actor. I don’t dislike him as an actor as much as I dislike his movies or the characters he plays. Films like The Last Duel, Marriage Story, Midnight Special, The Report, and 65 have been some of my most anticipated movies in recent years. Outside of The Last Duel, I wasn’t a fan. I liked The Last Duel a lot, but this had much more to do with the story and Ridley Scott’s direction than with Driver and costar Matt Damon. However, Driver’s performance as Enzo Ferrari was the best of his career. The quiet tenacity he brought to the screen as Ferrari Motor Company’s founder and how he unsuccessfully tried to balance his professional and personal life, shielding his secrets and inner turmoils from those around him, felt masterful at times. As unlikeable as he was, we couldn’t take our eyes off him. But for all of his flaws, there were moments where we felt compassion for him, particularly when it came to the love he had for his offspring.
Italian motor racing driver turned entrepreneur Enzo was viewed as a hero in 1957 Italy. Unbeknownst to most, he is fighting to hold his grip on the innovations he has established in the automotive racing industry. His company is on the verge of bankruptcy. Yet, rather than focusing on the production of vehicles to keep its business prosperous, Enzo focuses more on racing, such as breaking the speed record he currently has through reckless decision-making that might be able to shave off a second here or gain a slight advantage there, despite the risks his drivers endured. He’s a never-satisfied leader, puts his self-interests above all else, and will bend the rules and bully those around him as best as he can to get his way. It’s a recipe for disaster and one that the moviegoer has front-row seats to watch.
Rather than focusing on the entirety of Enzo’s life, Mann’s film centers around the summer of 1957, while a soon-to-be 60-year-old Enzo is living in the northern Italian city of Modena, where he splits his leisure time between his mistress Lina Lardi (Shailene Woodley – The Fault in Our Stars, Adrift) and his angry-at-the-world wife, Laura (Penélope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Vanilla Sky). Laura knows about the affair but seems to hardly care about this transgression or the many others Enzo was known to have. The married couple are grieving the loss of their son Dino, who died a year earlier from complications related to muscular dystrophy. While neither Enzo nor Laura are healing properly from the tragedy, they are not processing the death together. Their relationship is icy on a good day. They each regularly visit Dino in the family crypt at a nearby cemetery. But while Laura struggles to complete basic life functions, Enzo buries his head in his work as commander of the company he founded.
While Enzo makes the company’s day-to-day decisions, his stake is only 50%. Laura owns the other half. Within their dynamic, this fact looms large. She’s angry, unfairly painting Enzo as someone who let Dino die. A year after his death, Laura is bitter, distraught, and volatile. When she learns the long-suspected rumors of Enzo having an illegitimate 11-year-old son with Lina, she grows more unpredictable and vengeful than ever. Her erraticism wedged the relationship even further, with both parties realizing she could sell her stake in the company at any moment, effectively ruining both her husband and his company.
In a film that’s full of highlights, Cruz is the best. When we first meet her, she’s wielding a gun toward her philandering husband. She’s despicable to her husband but with reason. Dino was her life. She has little reason to live without him, let alone stay in Italy with Enzo. We never see her smile or offer an ounce of compassion to anyone. Yet, we cheer for her. Cruz gives us a reason to rally behind someone presented as spiteful but not jealous or self-serving but with reason. It’s one of Cruz’s best performances to date. It’s highly disappointing that she appears to be on the outside looking in as it relates to a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. Her name is hardly mentioned for this role despite how her portrayal of Linda elevated Driver’s Enzo while adding an element of humanity to a story that was often anything but. This was the best supporting actress performance of the year, yet Cruz isn’t getting even a sniff. Could this be from the end-of-year biopic fatigue?
Ferrari was engaging from the start. Racing car fanatics and those with no interest in automobiles will enjoy the film equally. The racing serves more as a backdrop than anything else. Ferrari is less like Days of Thunder or Rush than Oppenheimer or Air. This is an engaging biopic focused on a fierce leader and commanding presence. With that said, the racing scenes that we do have are shot expertly, with one race sequence that you’ll long remember after your viewing. With Mann’s direction, Oscar-deserving performances from Driver and Cruz, and precision to detail, we can overlook the handful of scenes (particularly as they relate to the finances of the company, Enzo, or Linda) that aren’t necessary to the film’s advancement and enjoy Ferrari for the educational and entertaining segmented biopic of the most famous racing car company in the world.
Plot 9/10
Character Development 9.5/10
Character Chemistry 9.5/10
Acting 9.5/10
Screenplay 8.75/10
Directing 9/10
Cinematography 9.5/10
Sound 8.5/10
Hook and Reel 8.5/10
Universal Relevance 9.5/10
91.25%
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