This week, I finally caught up with Michael Mann’s Ferrari (Neon, 12.25). Unlike most Mann classics (“Heat,” “Collateral,” “Thief”), there are no crime elements to “Ferrari”; instead, it’s a domestic drama set in the racecar world. And yet, it can certainly, and firmly, plant itself inside Mann’s filmography, and I’ll explain why soon.
This an atmospheric portrait of Italian car owner, Enzo Ferrari, played by a white-haired Adam Driver, in one of his best performances, as he managed his deteriorating business, mourns the recent death of his son Dino, and keeps his mistress (Shailene Woodley) away from ticking time bomb wife Laura (Penelope Cruz). It doesn’t help that Laura has no idea that Enzo is also the father of a 10-year-old child.
Throughout the film, you have Enzo trying to survive all the drama in his life, and then Mann shifts to its pièce de resistance, a blisteringly shot race event (1957 Mille Miglia) that Enzo needs his team to win so as to not go bankrupt. The race takes place in the last half hour of the film, interspersed with some of the background drama in Enzo’s life coming to a crescendo — it all comes crashing down, literally and figuratively.
As always, Mann is a master at creating atmosphere — you live and breathe the ‘50s, northern Italian milieu. There is so much texture to the film, visually and emotionally, that it all feels very lived-in. This is a film that could have easily come out of the ‘70s New Hollywood movement, shot in old-school grainy fashion, ala Gordon Willis, by Eric Messerschmidt.
Penelope Cruz’s Laura Ferrari steals the show as the scorched earth, pistol-wielding wife — Cruz’s passionate work here doesn’t only deserve Best Supporting Actress recognition, she deserves to win. Her Laura is ferocious, a scorned woman who stands her ground and even isn’t afraid to point a gun directly at her husband.
Forget about comparing Mann’s film to James Mangold’s 2019 “Ford vs. Ferrari”, which was set a decade after Mann’s story. That was a highly entertaining racecar drama, whereas Mann’s “Ferrari,” like all of his notable films, might be epic in scope, but is also intensely intimate and driven by the subtlest of gestures.
It also features some of the best racing scenes you’ll ever see on film; visceral, speedy and chaotic — it’s masterfully choreographed. There’s a sense of danger at every turn, with pulse-pounding camerawork making you feel like you’re inside the car with the driver.
You dread something horrific happening at every turn, and that it finally does, in most unexpected fashion, only further proves Mann’s gift at subverting expectations. Unlike his crime classics, “Ferrari” is Mann showing the utmost of restraint, until he unleashes hellfire on his audience when they least expect it. [B+]