OUT NOW: Ferrari (Michael Mann, 2023)

In 1957, Ferrari the man and the company are at a crossroads.

The company is broke and its founders Enzo (Adam Driver) and his wife Laura (Penelope Cruz) are in a struggle over their personal and professional futures.

As Enzo tries to assemble a team and vehicles for a major race which could give the beleaguered company some good press, Laura learns a secret which could destroy everything...

I did not have any great feelings coming out of Ferrari.

The outline of the story sounds like a comeback story but I am not sure that is the movie’s intention.

What I took away was a sense of loss, focus, obsession and the constant presence of death.

Enzo is a familiar Michael Mann protagonist - in control, obsessed with his profession, and wrestling with forces outside of his control.

For a filmmaker obsessed with masculinity, I was surprised by how much focus is given to his wife Laura (Cruz) and lover Lira (Shailenne Woodley).

Laura is as pivotal to the movie as Enzo - someone who has sacrificed and suffered while taking an equal stake in the business.

The real stakes of the movie are the fault lines between Laura and Enzo.

Cruz is the standout of the movie - a slow boil of rage, trauma and love.

She could have been relegated to  ‘nagging wife’ caricature, but the movie and Cruz are too critical to be minimised.

Her story is laced with tragedy - her son is dead and her husband is in love with someone else he has an entire other life with.

 

It puts the racing on the back burner.

 

While the film shows a Mannian obsession around a specific subculture, the race - when it comes - feels less important than the confrontation between Enzo and Laura.

Mortality runs through the film, lacing the character’s obsession and drive. Enzo even foregrounds this in the scene around the  lunch table, in which he explains his philosophy of racing to his drivers.

While the race is depicted in pieces, the key sequence is all about the danger of the sport - the tragic crash which took the lives of race driver Alfonso de Portago (Gabriel Leone) and nine bystanders.

While Ferrari’s car wins the race (and the company is saved), this tragedy overrides any sense of elation.  

With Laura’s agreement, Enzo is able to bring his secret family out in public.

The film ends with Enzo taking his son to his older son’s grave.

Rather than some kind of triumph, this finale is more muted and ambiguous.

Even with the death and danger of the car, Ferrari - the name and ethos - will outlive these people.

Take from that what you will.

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