Ferrari – Movie Reviews by Ry!

Ferrari – In a Race of Moments: A Character Tale

Living is a journey of memories and moments.  As you stand upon those shores with grace, there is always a touch of relative pain, an irony of wearing a smile in the face of reality.  To live is to be a part of the story, a staple of films based on true events.  To feel those raw moments is a delicate task, but it becomes a matter of perspective if a true event film is remarkable or a chore.  In this review, I look at a film defined by real moments.  In a journey of many threads and strong performances, Ferrari is a biopic of a powerful brand in a slow race of a tale.

This film follows Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver), as he stands at a pivotal moment in the car industry.  With mounting pressures all around him, he must find a way to save his auto empire.  True story films are defined by either the journey or the moments.  Within either aspect, it is the enthralling nature of the characters that can make or break the experience.  With this biopic/true story, we come into a very specific point of time in Enzo Ferrari’s life.  It is the year 1957, and his company is facing certain doom.  On the commercial side, the vehicles aren’t selling as fast as needed.  On the racing side, he is facing steep competition from another Italian brand, Maserati.  Outside these struggles on the public front, he is also dealing with private matters involving his wife, Laura (Penelope Cruz) and estrange mistress, Lina Lardi (Shailene Woodley).  With many plot threads, it becomes a frenetic display of realism.  As the journey moves through each situation, the director uses a generalized approach that is propped up by the performances (of the actors/actresses).  What you have is a ‘day in the life’ kind of motif that showcases the rawness of the situation.  The audience becomes a witness to the insight of Enzo’s perspective, watching his methodical approach to certain pressured situations in his life.  The lack of real story development is obvious, but the enthralling nature comes from the raw interactions between Enzo and the company men, wife, and mistress.  These situations elevate (to a degree) the pathway of the film.  With a lack of real exposition or dramatic quips, emotional threads become a manner of perspective as you witness the fallout of decisions that will make or break the Ferrari brand.

When parts of Enzo’s life reach the light of day, the crossroads becomes a manner of hearts and truths.  Dancing the line between melodrama and realism, the catalyst of the ‘true story’ propels a parallelism of his dueling lives.  With the brand on the brink, we head into a third act that continues that mixed bag of emotional thrust and consequences.  This leads to a fallout style climax and epilogue.  Ferrari is a true story film defined by strong acting in a lackluster tale.  If you are fan of character films, biopics/true stories, or the Ferrari brand, I say give it a chance.  I think this can be a good Friday Night watch at home.

Full Score – 2.5 out of 5 (Friday Night Rental)