Michael Mann is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker. This is his twelfth feature as director. Most people know him for his crime drama Heat (1995) or his biopic Ali (2001). Just as many people may have seen his TV series Miami Vice (1984), which he adapted into a feature in 2006. He's worked more as a producer and he produced the film Ford v Ferrari (2019), which was nominated for Best Picture. It detailed the events leading up to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966 in which the Italian automaker competed in the famous car race. However, Mann began working on this film long prior to Ford v Ferrari. It's an adaptation of the 1991 biography by Brock Yates, the longtime editor of Car and Driver magazine. It could essentially stand as a prequel to Ford v Ferrari, as it details the events leading up to the Mille Miglia in 1957 in which the Italian automaker also competed and made some history.
Adam Driver (Marriage Story and Star Wars: The Force Awakens) stars as Enzo Ferrari, an Italian race car driver in the 1920's and 30's who created his own motorsport team. After World War II, he started manufacturing cars and had his own factory. His goal though was never to become like Henry Ford and create an assembly line of automobiles on a large scale. He simply wanted to make enough vehicles to maintain his motorsport team. However, this film takes place in 1957 when his company was in financial trouble and he was looking to sell part, if not all of the company in order to continue funding his motorsport obsession. However, at the same time, he was dealing with a huge issue in his personal life.
Penélope Cruz (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Vanilla Sky) co-stars as Laura Ferrari, the wife of Enzo. She was also the mother of his first child, a son named Alfredo or "Dino." Dino died in 1956 at the age of 24 before the film begins. We see both Enzo and Laura mourning Dino at his tomb. However, the issues between Enzo and Laura aren't really about their son's death, although that's a factor. Their issues originate years before Dino's death. During the war, Enzo had to give his wife half of his company's shares, which affords her some power and control over it. In order to sell the company or make a deal with another, he needs his wife's consent or possess her shares. Whether or not she will give that consent or sign over possession is the question and one of the main conflicts in this narrative.
Cruz's performance is probably the most powerful as she is not only showing a woman's grief but also the conflict she experiences. She is a woman who clearly gave a lot of herself to her husband and his company. Yet, by giving her consent or signing over her shares, she gets left with nothing. Her shares in the company is really the only thing in her grasp. Mann has a lot of shots that are close-ups of Enzo's face in the extreme foreground, as if he's trying to put us in his head. We're successful in learning that he is driven to win these auto races and puts aside sentimentality when things go wrong, such as racer deaths. He often tries to be laser-focused in maintaining a certain image in the media and press.
Shailene Woodley (The Fault in Our Stars and Divergent) plays Lina Lardi, the mistress of Enzo who has given him a second son named Piero who is only 12 years-old in 1957. Woodley gets more than the mistress character in House of Gucci (2021) in which Adam Driver also starred. Yet, we don't learn too much about her. She lives in a large, very nice home that Enzo bought. She maintains a grove or orchard of plum trees on the property where she raises Piero. Yet, her life outside of that is a bit of a blank. She seems to exist in this narrative to push Enzo to acknowledge Piero publicly. The film posits a decision that Enzo has to make over saving his company or acknowledging his son publicly that doesn't quite materialize dramatically as well as it could.
Like the recent Gran Turismo (2023), which is also based on a true story about motorsports, this film has a climactic moment involving a car crash. Whereas the car crash in Gran Turismo was a climactic moment for the protagonist in that film, the car crash here was climactic to the world of motorsports as a whole. The events here in the 1957 Mille Miglia essentially affected the sport forever. While the car crash is shockingly staged, the aftermath of which doesn't do enough to sell that impact and really detail how monumental it was. On a guttural level, Mann's staging certainly comes like a gut punch.
I'm not sure the film does a good enough job though of allowing us to connect with the other car racers. Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy) plays Piero Taruffi, the eldest racer on Enzo's team. Jack O'Connell (300: Rise of an Empire) plays Peter Collins, probably the youngest racer on Enzo's team. Brazilian actor Gabriel Leone plays Alfonso de Portago who has a long Wikipedia page. Yet, this film really doesn't do enough to convey the details of this man's interesting life. Obviously, this film is about Enzo not Alfonso, but it seems as if we're meant to feel something for the racers. It's difficult to do so when the film doesn't give us much about them. The most we get are quick introductions, not enough to substantiate them in the film.
Rated R for some violent content, graphic images, sexual content and language.
Running Time: 2 hrs. and 4 mins.
In theaters.