Ferrari (2023) Dir. Michael Mann

Ferrari? A name that conjures luxurious performance in the sun, smooth and sleek extravagance and a tightly constructed machine with all parts working in harmony. A rapid dynamo of creativity, delivering opulence and machismo captured in one word.

Ferrari (the movie) however is unfortunately far too little of that

Michael Mann returns after 8 years away from the screen with a movie that makes his flawed Public Enemies look quite good and that length is sadly how long Ferrari's first two-thirds feels whilst watching it.

Adam Driver (Logan Lucky, Rise of Skywalker) stars as the Italian car founder Enzo Ferrari who, during the summer of 1957 prepares his racing team for the Mille Miglia. Struggling with the engineering and disasters, this is compounded by the tension with his estranged wife, played by Penélope Cruz, and his many infidelities.

Driver as Enzo is admittedly excellent, yet playing a man whose real-life involves World War 2, a stint as a journalist and a racer himself, other than some speedy car moments, it’s often just lackluster family and business drama in dull brown rooms.

Enzo’s well-known perfectionism IS on display yet watching him discuss the minutiae of racing engineering may work for some - but I’d wager that's a very specific (and tiny) part of general audiences. It also gets off the grid slowly, with a tired and measured pace for at least the first hour. And during that period, the always watchable Driver and Cruz seem wasted on an exposition and business-heavy script.

Mann throws in some heavy-handed religious analogies and some kind of confessional booth metaphor but for all its flaws, at least Ridley Scott’s The House of Gucci (also starring Driver) had some Italian flair and passion (even Jared Leto was “doing a Mario”). And not even some badly filmed Latin love got my petrol flowing.

Towards the end though we get some much-anticipated and very exciting racing action which is well filmed in some gorgeous city and rural locations. And this finally adds an overdue turbo boost of fast editing and neat camera moves. As it gains momentum, a suitably shocking moment leaves us questioning Enzo's obsessiveness and desire to win at any cost too. Thankfully, this section wisely avoids Mann’s earlier narrative mantra of “slow and steady wins the race”. In fact, it's really bloody good. But it’s all just a little bit too late.

Motor vehicle gear heads and car aficionados will probably find much more satisfaction in Ferrari's detailed analysis of the car-maker's history in that struggling first-half.

But for a casual viewer like me, so much of it feels like a broken machine limping around a tiresome narrative track. It's too often stuck behind a slow-paced safety car of drama, before delivering a final amazing one-lap record, but then retiring from the race altogether. Very much a missed opportunity.

★★½

2 .5 / 5

Michael Sales