Ferrari is an operatic melodrama starring a paunchy Adam Driver

It is one of the most anticipated films. Ferrariby Michael Mann, with Adam Driver in the role of Don Enzo Ferrari at the time of the Commendatore at the helm of the Cavallino Rosso team, is everything one expects from the director of Fire against fire AND Miami Division.

It is not a biopic, because although it begins with black and white images of Driver driving, worked to look like those of that period, the action focuses on one year, 1957. A decade had passed since he and his wife, Laura (Penelope Cruz) had created the team, but the times are not the same, Maserati breaks its records and the one that is about to go bankrupt is their company.

And neither Ferrariwhich competed for the Golden Lion in its international premiere at the Venice Film Festival, without winning anything, nor receiving any Oscar nominations (sound and editing were two possibilities) is a biographical film that is decided only by working life, let’s say, of Don Enzo, but it also includes the unacknowledged son had by his lover of over a decade Lina Lardi (Shailene Woodley, from Misanthropeby Damián Szifron), without Laura finding out.

This is why it is not surprising that the first time we see Enzo and Laura together is one morning when he returns from his lover’s house and Laura shoots him with a bullet that hits the wall very close by.

Enzo knew death. His son Dino has recently died, and the fatal accidents of his pilots – some in particular are shown in a terrible way – are like stains that he can’t get rid of.

The only way Ferrari could save its company and not need to sell it to Fiat or Ford would be to achieve a victory in the Mille Miglia, the traditional Italian road endurance race.

There is a couple of mentions of Juan Manuel Fangio, who in 1957 would be crowned world champion with Maserati.

With gray hair and a flat stomach, Adam Driver is back filming in Italy posing as a real-life character, as in The house of Gucci (2021), by Ridley Scott, where he played Maurizio Gucci.

Passion, pain, ambition and pain

“When you drive you have to concentrate on one goal, everything else disappears”, says Don Enzo through Adam Driver. And whoever directs this “operatic melodrama”, as director of Miami Division, I’m Michael Mann. A melodrama about passion, loss, pain, love and ambition.

Ferrari It’s not like getting up from your chair and clapping. It’s entertaining and despite the adrenaline-filled moments of racing and time trials, characteristic of Michael Mann’s films, it doesn’t go beyond being a correct film.

“Ferrari”

Drama. US/UK/Italy/China, 2023. 130′, SAM 13 R. From: Michael Mann. With: Adam Driver, Shailene Woodley, Penelope Cruz, Patrick Dempsey, Giuseppe Festinese. Rooms: Cinépolis Recoleta, Houssay y Pilar, Hoyts Abasto, Cinemark Palermo, Showcase Belgrano, Norcenter, Haedo and Quilmes.