Michael Mann’s first feature in eight years, Ferrari, starring Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz and Shailene Woodley, premieres at the 80th Venice Film Festival.
A question formed during the runtime of Michael Mann’s latest feature Ferrari: What qualifies a man (and it’s always a man) to be awarded the status of a legend? There’s usually a hefty bank account in the mix whether a rich man trying to get richer or a down-and-outer trying to rise above the trappings of his birth. The amassment of riches is powered by a relentless ambition to do something that no one has done before. Or at least doing something better than what anyone else has done before. The undulating fame that follows usually comes at the price of a disintegrating family life and personal relationships. There are no happily married legends. And this too is carried as a point of pride.
Mann’s Enzo Ferrari doesn’t stray from these stereotypes. Adam Driver’s Enzo is appropriately self-satisfied and self-assured and Driver is aided in an Oscar hopeful turn by streaks of grey hair and a slightly protruding belly. As with any legend, there must be tragedy in his making. For Enzo one is the death of his firstborn (off screen) and the other an accident during a Mille Miglia race that caused spectator deaths while taking place. However, not enough time or care was placed on these events to make them anything more than exposition on Enzo’s character.
In portraying the eponymous hero Driver is joined by Penelope Cruz as his generically hysteric and vindictive wife whose dishevelled look (read frizzy hair and smudged makeup) and stomping physicality serve little purpose in the overall story of Ferarri. Not much more can be said of Shailene Woodley’s Lina as Enzo’s docile, angelic mistress. But then again, hardly more can be said about the plot. While the cast embodies their characters as the professionals that they are, the decision to use Italian accents in an all-round American feature is a head scratcher.
Little can be added on Mann’s directorial vision, especially having seen the film from the first row. The proximity to the screen made the faces distorted at times and the elusiveness of plot made it even harder to join the scenes together. There were a few memorable scenes such as the mentioned Mille Miglia accident and a few roaring laps around the racecourse, but the repetitive nature of lapping around the same circles spills over to the script making the feature seem overlong and unsubstantial.
Overall, while Mann enthusiasts and F1 fans might get enough kicks to give the film a second or even a third chance, a viewer coming in to see is more likely to leave no more enlightened about Enzo Ferrari or human nature in general than before seeing the film.
