Ferrari boasts a good lead performance by Adam Driver, but that’s about it. The rest is muddled, boring, and hard to understand. Don’t race to see it.
Ferrari had the potential to be a very exciting movie. With Adam Driver starring, a marital scandal surrounding Enzo Ferrari, and a tragic accident in the mix, it should have been great. Instead, even with a great performance by Driver, it is nearly impossible to connect with Enzo. At the same time, the accents feel forced and cause a lot of the dialogue to be difficult to understand. Don’t race out to see this one any time soon.
This film follows racer and entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari in his later years. Not only is his company struggling financially, his marriage is on the rocks as well. Throw in a tragedy that is blamed on Ferrari and you have the makings of an entertaining movie. Unfortunately, Ferrari is not a likable guy. In fact, he is quite a horrible person. So spending over two hours with him is like nails on a chalkboard.
Driver does a good job at portraying this side of him, but it doesn’t make the audience care about him at all. Which in turn makes the film feel overly long and, quite frankly, annoying. There is no reason to care about him, and therefore viewers will not connect with him or care about what he is going through.
At the same time, the Italian accents feel heavily forced. Sometimes they are understandable, but other times they cause cause the dialogue to be so messy that it becomes hard to know exactly what it going on. This happens especially in the big heated moments, when it is important to hear what everyone is saying to each other.
When it comes to the racing scenes, they are the most enjoyable part of Ferrari. The problem is they are few and far between. This is the only part of the movie where it shines, as the intensity is felt through the screen. That being said, Gran Turismo did this much better.
It is here that tragedy strikes, and even though the movie is based on real events, we will not go into depth about what exactly occurs. For those who do not know it is coming, it is shocking and feels like a major twist in the story. Ferrari only has about fifteen minutes of runtime left after this occurs, with most of reserved to explaining what happened to the real Enzo Ferrari and the company.
So basically, as soon as something that is actually entertaining and exciting happens, the movie comes to an end, revealing the details of the true story via a few short sentences on the screen.
Adam Driver does a great job at making the audience feel some kind of way about the lead character, which is likely the point of it all since he is not a good person. However, even with scandals surrounding him, the movie never comes together to tell anything even remotely entertaining. That is until the end. Just when things pick up, the film concludes, which feels like a big mistake.
When it comes to the heavy accents, they feel forced and out of place, and often ruin important dialogue moments. Don’t bother to race out and see this one any time soon.
Rating: 2 out of 5
NEXT: Ferrari Cast & Filmmakers Reveal Behind The Scenes Details
About Ferrari
It is the summer of 1957. Behind the spectacle of Formula 1, ex-racer Enzo Ferrari is in crisis. Bankruptcy threatens the factory he and his wife, Laura built from nothing ten years earlier. Their volatile marriage has been battered by the loss of their son, Dino a year earlier.
Ferrari struggles to acknowledge his son Piero with Lina Lardi. Meanwhile, his drivers’ passion to win pushes them to the edge as they launch into the treacherous 1,000-mile race across Italy, the Mille Miglia.
Ferrari Hits Theaters Christmas 2023.
