Hamish Mcleod

It's a really hard film to judge. It does what it should and is a real insight, but I think it suffers from the expectation that it would be about the racing, the drivers the glamour and all the razzamatazz, when in fact it is a biopic. It glances over the boardroom wrangles, the financial desperation and glides over the racing fatalities as though they were incidental, unimportant and not a source of inner emotional turmoil.. that appears mostly to be about Ferrari's mustress and illegitimate son... Such may well be uminportant to the narrative of the script, but their treatment felt shallow with the main desire regarding the deeply unlikable Enzo appears to be to exonorate and absolve him, or at best to 'leave that to the audience to decide'. Shame really... I'll watch it again... but i felt the whole mood was somewhat muted, leaving all the changes in emotional tempo to Penelope Cruz, because 'Italian women are like that, aren't they?' and none of the pre-race scenes, even the driving scenes gave any impression of the excitement a race going audience would recognize. As a study in selfishness and blind determination, Adam Driver gives a solid performance, but there's a difference between acceptance of a blame and being a bulletproof shield against all emotional engagement... maybe Ferrari was just that, but it's impossible to empathize with a character that apparently feels none of the tragedy or success he creates around himself. All in all it's a cold study of a cold man. Filmmakers might like it... the performances are carried by Cruz and Driver, but it'll have a hard time finding a motor racing audience, in spite of jamming as many red cars into every racing scene as is humanly possible... but doubtless Ferrari sales will benefit from the name exposure. Can't say I didn't like it, but can't say it lived up to expectations.

Why don't they set up a Graham Norton style couch, invite one or two players in for a few minutes chat about their part in their game that day... obvs from the games nearest the studio and obvs players who want to give their personal view of their role in the game, drop in a celeb football fan if they have to and do the (essential) match analysis with their input as well. Add 15-20 minutes to the program to fit it in before the late night movie and Bob's your aunti Ada's brother.