Is Adam Driver (65; THE LAST DUEL) destined to play every iconic 20^th century Italian on screen? The actor previously bemused audiences with his cheesy Italian accent playing Maurizio Gucci in the 2021 film, HOUSE OF GUCCI. Now he taking on Enzo Ferrari in director Michael Mann’s (COLLATERAL; MIAMI VICE; HEAT) first film in eight years.

The time is 1957 and Enzo Ferrari is at a crossroad both with his eponymous car company and in his life. Established ten years earlier amid the ashes of WWII by Enzo and his wife Laura (Penélope Cruz, PAIN AND GLORY; EVERYBODY KNOWS), the company is now on the verge of bankruptcy. Faced with stiff competition on the racing circuit coming from local rival Maserati, Enzo knows that Ferrari must win the Mille Miglia, the 1,000-mile race across Italy, if the company is going to have a future. He’s considering offering an equity stake in the company to either Ford or Fiat but Laura owns half of the company and their relationship has been strained since the death of their son a year earlier. To complicate matters, Enzo has been in a long-term relationship with Lina Lardi (Shailene Woodley, DUMB MONEY; THE MAURITANIAN) and she’s pushing him to publicly acknowledge that their 10-year-old son, Piero, is his.

FERRARI is somewhat of a mixed bag. While the film’s racing scenes show the hallmarks of Mann’s attention to style, there’s very little else to get revved up about with this story. This small chapter of Ferrari’s life seems a bit of a downer with the possibility of financial ruin, the loss of his crown for making the fastest cars on the road, his fractured marriage, the loss of his son, and the acknowledgement of Piero’s paternity. I hate to say it but this was not the best story to tell. The film includes a few, very brief flashbacks to 1947 and this time seems to be a more interesting chapter in Enzo’s life with the company just starting out, his relationship with Laura still fiery, his son still alive and his relationship with Lina still fresh. Instead, FERRARI gives audiences a couple of resigned characters who have lost much of their spark. It doesn’t make for very gripping viewing. The core of the story is arguably about Enzo convincing Laura to hand over her power of attorney to him so that he can make a deal to keep the company afloat but it’s lost amid all the other events that are swirling around in Enzo’s life at the same time.

Fortunately, Cruz’s performance as Enzo’s beaten down wife and business partner saves the film from crashing and burning but it’s not enough to carry it to the winners’ podium. Driver, for his part, deserves some credit for having improved his Italian accent since HOUSE OF GUCCI and sporting a classy, slicked-back hairstyle as well as a nifty pair of Persol #2762 sunglasses but, outside of a couple of spectacular racing scenes, FERRARI doesn’t give audiences much of a chance to really peer into what made Enzo tick. Then there’s Woodley who is, once again, miscast. The actress barely gives her Italian accent the old college try. With each new movie she is cast in, I wonder more what the attraction to her is.

FERRARI opened in Hong Kong yesterday (January 18^th). Don’t expect to be supercharged after watching this film but the movie isn’t a blowout either.

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