Set in 1957, with Ferrari on the brink of collapse we follow Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) during a turbulent summer where he will push his drivers and engineers to win the Mille Miglia, a 1,000 mile race across Italy. His family life is equally turbulent as his wife Laura (Penelope Cruz) continues to mourn the death of their son and his mistress Lina (Shailene Woodley) asks him to recognise their illegitimate son. 

The film’s focus is to show how Enzo’s love of racing is intertwined with his very existence and this is shown very early on in a scene reminiscent of one in the Godfather. Rather than intercutting between a baptism in church and assassinations cementing Michael Corleone’s power as Godfather, here we have the intercutting of the routine of a church service, with a sermon about motor engineering no less with the racing of a Ferrari on the test track. With men utilising stopwatches to track the time bleeding into the church itself. Enzo’s entire life and focus revolves around paying his respects to his dead son by talking to him in the family crypt, managing business relationships with his wife, spending time with his other family and racing. 

The racing itself is incredibly visceral and tense. This was a time long before health and safety. Drivers are exposed to the elements. There are no safety measures apart from a cursory helmet and the odd hay bale to protect thousands year old architecture. And the crash scenes are brutal and have devastating consequences. 

With the ticking clock on Ferrari’s finances and the delicate balancing act of his relationships the film drums up massive amounts of tension. Tension that the race sequences use and add to. 

For me though the interest lay much more in those personal battles than the racing ones. The wall that Enzo built up to protect himself from racing accidents, the arrangement his wife has made with him over his indiscretions in order to focus on their business and the damage that a death of a child can cause. All of these things were more fascinating than the racing but also served to make its outcome more tense. 

Adam Driver is excellent here as well. Personifying the absolute commitment and dedication to racing with a constant steely glare. Whilst Woodley and Cruz do well as secondary characters who shape Ferrari. The one thing that felt a little off though is their Italian accents in amongst the many native performers, with Woodley’s accent coming and going as well. 

Michael Mann’s first film since 2015’s Blackhat is a solid and enjoyable one but does not reach the heights of his master works.