Serving as the opening night film of this year’s Venice Film Festival, filmmaker Michael Mann debuted his “Ferrari” feature to a six-minute standing ovation at the Sala Grande Theatre.
The film is considered the big ticket of Venice and with it brought star power with cast members Adam Driver and Patrick Dempsey in tow thanks to the film securing a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement during the strikes.
The film is set during the summer of 1957 as the eponymous racer and entrepreneur must overcome threats of bankruptcy, divorce and the death of his son to save his business. He bets all on the Mile Miglia, a 1,000 mile-race across Italy.
With 25 reviews counted, the film has achieved an 80% (6.5/10) score on Rotten Tomatoes with praise for the performances by Driver and co-star Penelope Cruz and for the robust filmmaking, but a few dub it ‘lesser Mann’ mainly due to the script/story. Here’s a sampling of review quotes:
“That rarest of films: the complex, complicated biopic. Like his subject, Mann appreciates beauty and power while never forgetting that beauty can wither and power can destroy; within that matrix of messy contradictions, he creates haunting drama.” – Alonso Duralde, The Film Verdict
“There is an unstoppable force at the center of Michael Mann’s Ferrari. It is fast, fierce, and wildly unpredictable. One moment it has you in the throes of ecstasy; the next, fearing for your life… I’m talking, of course, about Penélope Cruz.” – Marlow Stern, Rolling Stone
“Ferrari really is like a ’70s movie. It has that intensity of grip, that layered human fascination, that cathartic honesty about what life is really about.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety
“The film itself does not find a way to absorb the pointless culpable horror of it all, relapsing into a stolid, almost joyless determination… But no one could doubt the style with which Mann stages those race scenes, with their danger and horror.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“In the hands of a less confident actor, this could have been a disaster, theatrical and awkward and unreal. But Driver makes Ferrari something indelible, a force not so much of nature as steel, asphalt, and death.” – Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine
“Ferrari is unlikely to go down as canonical Mann, lacking the glimmering, hard-edged stylishness of his best work. But admirers of the director’s high-intensity, muscular filmmaking will not go unrewarded.” – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
“It’s been a long wait to see another of Mann’s muscular visions on the big screen, and while Ferrari is perhaps more muted than some might hope for, it’s a pleasure to watch the filmmaker explore some new styles and timbres. ” – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
“This is a refined, exquisite — expensive — production, but Ferrari doesn’t step up the gears fast and furious enough for wider appeal.” – Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International
“Adam Driver is back in Italian biopic mode… to play Enzo Ferrari in this handsomely made, competently performed but ultimately quite empty drama from the veteran film-maker Michael Mann (Heat).” – Kevin Maher, Times
“Perhaps there’s a different version of Ferrari that feels more compelling, but there’s precious little to be done about the by-the-book storytelling, which doesn’t do justice to such rich subject matter.” – Hannah Strong, Little White Lies
“Ferrari” is set to open wide in cinemas on Christmas Day.
