By John Corrado

★★½ (out of 4)

Director Michael Mann returns with Ferrari, a biopic of Italian automaker Enzo Ferrari, that focuses more on his relationships and personal life.

The film is set in 1957, a decade after Enzo (a silver-haired Adam Driver) opened the factory with his wife Laura Ferrari (Penelope Cruz) in post-War Italy. Laura controls half the company, which is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. The couple is still grieving the death of their son Dino, a natural heir to the throne.

At the start of the movie, Enzo is sneaking away from his mistress Lina Lardi (Shailene Woodley) and going home to his wife, who greets him with a pistol. The affair is complicated by the fact that Enzo and Lina have an illegitimate child together, a son named Piero (Giuseppe Festinese).

How successful you find Ferrari will likely depend on what you are looking for in a Ferrari movie. The film is only partially about racing cars, and more of a melodrama about marital infidelity and fathers and sons, with the screenplay by Troy Kennedy Martin putting a heavy focus on domestic scenes. At times this approach feels too restrained. There are some pacing issues across the 130 minute running time, with the somewhat sluggish film picking up more in its second half.

A through-line of the film involves the 1957 Mille Miglia race in Italy, with Ferrari obsessively trying to hold on to the speed record held by his company’s race cars. The fact that this might put his drivers Piero Taruffi (Patrick Dempsey) and Peter Collins (Jack O’Connell) at risk seems at best like an afterthought for him. Shot by cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, the racing scenes are well done, including an intense key sequence that really highlights the sound design and Pietro Scalia’s editing.

Driver delivers a measured portrayal of Enzo Ferrari, but with a focused intensity behind it. There is a coldness to his character that feels intentional. Cruz brings some fireworks to the role of his wife, who accepts her husband’s philandering, but only up to a point. Her performance goes big, but she is equally compelling in the quieter moments when revelations play off her face. Woodley’s role feels somewhat underwritten, but she still manages to hold her own in scenes alongside Driver.

The film is uneven and has some shortcomings in its narrative structure. But these performances, as well as several solid technical elements including Daniel Pemberton’s musical score, do make Mann’s Ferrari worth seeing.

Ferrari opens exclusively in theatres on December 25th. It’s being distributed in Canada by Elevation Pictures.