January 5, 2024 – Enzo Ferrari, last spotted in the 2019 film, “Ford v Ferrari,” makes another appearance in this film (played by Adam Driver of “House of Gucci”) and he's still doing what he did in 2019, playing Ford against Fiat in order to attract an investor to bail out his failing business.

Enzo is more interested in racing than he is in selling cars in this movie set in 1957 (six years prior to the story timeline in “Ford v Ferrari”) and as a result, he is near bankruptcy and needs to attract a business partner like Ford or Fiat to save his company. In order to attract investors, he needs to sell more cars, and in order to sell more cars, his race cars need to win more races.

If that sounds complicated, it is actually more complicated than that, and his personal life is even more coplicated, and intertwined with his company. His marriage to Laura (played by Penélope Cruz of “Parallel Mothers”) has disintegrated to the point that he lives with his lover, Lina Lardi (Shailene Woodley of “The Mauritanian”) and only shows up at his own house for the sake of appearances. He has a son by Lina, Piero (Giuseppe Festinese) that Laura doesn't know about, but she finds out, and that leads to a lot of problems.

The movie opens with a driver, car and team from rival Maserati arriving in Modena to break the Ferrari lap record at the Modena Autodrome track. On the same morning, Laura fires a gun in her husband's direction for arriving late, and Enzo is also involved in important discussions about his company's future.

Ferrari quickly arranges a test drive of a new Ferrari race car and his best driver, Eugenio Castellotti (played by Marino Franchitti) at the same track in an attempt to regain the track record. At the same time, he is visited by another driver, Alfonso de Protago, who is looking for a ride. Ferrari tells Alfonso bluntly he doesn't need a driver. But right then, Castellotti is killed in a crash, and Ferrari hires Protago on the spot.

Enzo seems rather indifferent to the loss of life in racing, except for two friends, Baconin Borzacchini and Giuseppe Campari, who died on the same day in 1933, during a race at the Monza Circuit track. He also mourns the loss of his son, Alfredo “Dino,” who died after a lengthy illness. In the movie, Enzo is seen talking to his son at the family tomb, saying that next time his wife's bullet might not miss, and he might be joining him in death.

Enzo's seeming indifference to the deaths of his drivers (two of them die in this movie, and, in reality, between 1955 and 1971, eight Ferrari racing drivers died in the line of duty) is one of this movie's fictions. In real life, he was reportedly concerned for the lives of his drivers, but racing was a very risky sport, especially in the 1950s, compared to now. Enzo's financial troubles are also exaggerated in this movie for dramatic effect, but he did eventually sell a percentage of his company to Fiat. Also, Laura never fired a gun at Enzo, as seen in the movie.

Enzo needs to win the risky Mille Miglia, a thousand mile endurance race, in order for his company to stay afloat, so he enters five cars in the race, but is the underdog to the more powerful Maserati cars. The dangerous Italian Mille Miglia race is one of the movie's highlights. Spectators line many parts of the route and a number of them, including children are killed in accidents over the years. This 1957 race was especially tragic, and particularly graphic accident scenes are in this film.

Overall, however, despite the accidents and emotional histrionics, this movie never really revs up its motor. It is just kind of idles along. I did learn some things about Ferrari, his family and his company, but none of this comes across as something I should care about. There is no one to root for, or against. Nobody really cares about owners, and we never really get to know enough about the drivers. This movie never comes close to being as compelling as movies like “Rush” (2013) or “Ford v Ferrari.”

I think it is hard to make a good movie about motor racing, and that's why there have been so few good ones. The acting is strong in this movie, especially by Woodley (an underrated actress) and Cruz, who channels her inner “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” as the angry, but complicated, jilted lover. As is often the case, the problem is not the acting, but the story itself. This movie rates a C.

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