The wonderful thing about a biopic is that you don’t have to have any invested interest into the subject to enjoy the product. Your interest in cars and their legacy won’t get in the way of what you experience on the screen in Ferrari. Yet, unlike Maestro where superior filmmaking makes up for pitfalls of an untraditional biopic; Ferrari finds itself stuck in 1st gear when it comes to almost every aspect of its story. So, let’s unpack a little bit of what keeps Ferrari from going the speed it needs to be at.

After never excelling as a driver, Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) went into the production business along with his wife Laura (Penélope Cruz) creating one of the world’s most sought after sports car brands. But it isn’t an easy company to keep afloat. After years of personal and business woes, life seems to be falling apart for Enzo. His already fraught marriage is coming apart at the seams, the company is threatened with possible bankruptcy, and rival competitor Maserati is about to break speed records held by Ferrari.

Enzo must pull out all the stops to overcome all these issues and more as the world famous Mille Milglia race approaches.

It is never clear what story Ferrari is trying to tell. Sure, plot wise you’re watching a man attempt to save everything he holds dear (though the marriage part of that is questionable), but it has all but nothing to actually say. “Fight for what you love?” “Achieve your best at the sacrifice of others?” “The impossible is never impossible?” “Your success is paved over the blood of those that fought for you?” All of these can be slotted into the single slice of Ferrari’s life, but none of them paint a positive picture. 

And before you tell me that your protagonist doesn’t need to be a hero, or a good person, I 100% agree. But Ferrari does not paint its namesake in any other light than a person to root for. You see all his faults, all his insecurities, all his terrible ways up front. Though, it doesn’t stop the film from presenting itself as his most avid supporter.

There is a balance that is never struck, a roadway that is never paved, an off-ramp that is never marked to help guide the audience properly through this tale.

Now, I’m no linguistics expert and undoubtedly people will think otherwise, but an entire movie resting on the performance of its lead portraying an older Italian man– fails. Both Adam Driver and Shailene Woodley sound like they are doing bad Russian accents instead of Italian.

Even if you think they sound authentic, the thickness and cadence of Driver’s performance is more distracting than anything else. It all adds an extra layer of awkwardness to an already awkward movie. Layer on some odd CGI visuals and Ferrari becomes an exercise in asking, “what is happening?”

That all being said, while he isn’t exceptional in the sense of deserving an award, Patrick Dempsey ends up pulling off his Italian persona well enough to the point I started asking myself if it really was Dempsey or just a leathery Italian actor who just looks a lot like him. No performance in Ferrari screams award winning, but Dempsey’s presence (for as little of it there is) brings an aurora of class to a film that doesn’t know what it wants to be.

We all go through tough times and think there is no way any good will comes out of it. And maybe you can say that Ferrari is trying to tell you not to give up, but any part of the lives of those who lived it are not comparable to everyone else. There is no way I can fathom a world where a film about one of the most recognizable names in the world could equate to anything cathartic or tangible for someone paying $20 to watch it. Ferrari stumbles from the gun to the flag, never finding the right line to ride.

Final Grade: C-

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Here’s the trailer of the film.