Tonight's Movie: Ferrari (2023)

Earlier this week I went to see the new biopic FERRARI (2023).

I was curious about the film for a number of reasons, including the trailer and this '50s-set film being sort of the flip side of FORD VS. FERRARI (2019), giving the Italian car maker's side of the story.

I was also encouraged to try it by Leonard Maltin, who named it one of his favorite films of 2023, and by former Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan, who Tweeted he "greatly enjoyed" it.

That said, I had a bit of trepidation as I strongly disliked Adam Driver as Ben Solo in the recent STAR WARS films, calling him an "uninteresting drip." It's rather rare that I react to an actor so negatively, and I'm quite happy to report I found him absolutely mesmerizing in the title role of FERRARI. Indeed, for me it's an Oscar-worthy performance.

The movie is set in 1957 Italy and depicts Enzo Ferrari's struggles to keep his car company afloat. Prestigious customers like King Hussein of Jordan (Jonathan Burteaux) aren't enough to keep the lights on, and he's hopeful that success in the Mille Miglia road race will translate into increased auto sales.

Simultaneously Ferrari is juggling two separate lives. He's unhappily married to Laura (Penelope Cruz), his business partner and mother of his deceased son.

Since World War II he's also had a secret relationship (from Laura, at least) with Lina (Shailene Woodley), mother of his young son Piero (Giuseppe Festinese).

As Ferrari says about car design and racing, two things can't occupy the same space at the same time, but he's been trying to do that with Laura and Lina, and his personal life is about to crash simultaneously with his business.

This is a well-acted, visually attractive film. I suppose one could say it's rather a soap opera, given the "torn between two women" aspect, but if so it's very high-class, interesting soap opera about a fascinating, if imperfect, man.

The cars and Italian countryside are both beautiful. I also enjoyed the obvious yet enjoyable visual cues used for Ferrari's two lives with two very different women. The home he shares with Laura is dark and claustrophic, with unhappiness hiding in its narrow halls and behind the many doors.

Enzo's home with Lina is like something out of UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN (2003): Light and white, with a hazy, sunny glow. Lina's kitchen, seen as she makes Enzo pasta, is warm and comfortable -- and I'd add, filled with attractive pans.

Laura's kitchen is also white but it's a stark, empty look, as at various points Laura and Enzo's mother (Daniela Piperno) sit there in unhappy silence.

One of the notable story points for me is that the actress Linda Christian (Sarah Gadon), ex-wife of Tyrone Power, is a lead supporting character. Having divorced Power in 1956, in 1957 Linda was having an affair with aristocratic race driver Alfonso de Portago (Gabriel Leone) and was famously photographed kissing him just before an ill-fated crash. The actual photo, recreated in the film, is seen here.

The cast is uniformly excellent. I was quite pleasantly surprised by Driver, who completely disappears into his role as the businessman with a passion for fast cars. He's onscreen a vast majority of the time and is the key component which makes the movie work as well as it does.

Cruz and Woodley are the polar opposites in Ferrari's life. Laura gets the short end of the stick in terms of both her son dying and losing Enzo's love, so it's easy to understand the bitterness Cruz portrays, although it's admittedly not very attractive. Woodley does a nice job as the warm Lina.

I kept trying to place why I knew the white-haired "senior" race driver Piero Taruffi, then had to laugh as near the end of the film it suddenly dawned on me it was Patrick Dempsey, star of one of my favorite Disney films, ENCHANTED (2007). Dempsey was also, of course, a one-time star of TV's GREY'S ANATOMY. Some of it was the white hair and makeup, but I guess I also wasn't prepared for the fact that he's getting older, as are we all!

Some critics have complained about the accents used in the film, including Driver speaking Italian-accented English and other actors having poor or inconsistent manners of speaking, but I wasn't troubled in the least. As someone who spends most of my movie time immersed in classic-era films, where the use of accents is all over the map, I honestly didn't even think about it.  I was focused on the characters and performances, and the accents were simply not consequential for me in any way.

My only complaint, as is often the case with movies these days, is that it's too long. There's no reason this movie couldn't have had 10 minutes or so shaved off its 130 minutes.  

FERRARI was directed by Michael Mann, who also made one of my favorite films of recent decades, THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (1992). It was filmed by Erik Messerschmidt.

Parental Advisory: This is a fairly light R rating. There are a couple love scenes which leave no doubt as to what's going on while avoiding showing skin, and a couple of violent car wreck scenes where it's easy to avoid looking at the screen. The film does have mature themes, including Enzo being torn between two women, so the R rating seems about right to me, give or take a year.

This was a very good film, one I'm likely to purchase when it's available in order to enjoy any extras and have on hand for future rewatches. Recommended.

Update: FERRARI will be released on Blu-ray on March 12, 2024.

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