Ferrari (2024) ★★★★

THE main problem with Michael Mann’s Ferrari is length – it isn’t long enough.

At the film’s end I was wanting to know more about both the professional career and,  albeit to a lesser extent, personal life of the Italian racing legend.

Does this mean, as some critics have stated, that the film doesn’t really get going until its final lap?

Perhaps it may feel that way for some, but I was captivated throughout by the mix of audacity, recklessness, courage and tenacity that is depicted in the racing industry during the 1950s and ’60s when machines were pushed by driven men displaying crazy levels of skill and testosterone.

Mann’s film focuses on a short period in Enzo Ferrari’s life when his company was under significant financial pressure due to massive spending on both building and racing cars and juggling relationships with his wife, wonderfully played by Penelope Cruz, and mistress (Shailene Woodley).

The threat of death and not being able to leave a lasting legacy cats a constant pallor over Enzo’s life and the film, particularly as public and media pressure continues to build over the constant fatalities and injuries marring the sport.

While Cruz is very good and steals many scenes, Adam Driver looks and feels the part of Enzo and has the majority of the film’s best dialogue, based on a magazine article and written by the late Troy Kennedy Martin who interestingly wrote the original 1969 version of the car chase classic The Italian Job.

Ferrari naturally has some great racing sequences but noting will prepare you for the depiction of the film’s major event.

Gabriel Leone, Jack O’Connell, and Patrick Dempsey are a little wasted as Ferrari’s main drivers with only Leone having any decent length of screen time.

Bring on the extended version.

Watched at the cinema.