Adam Driver
Enzo Ferrari
Overview
Set during the summer of 1957. Ex-racecar driver, Enzo Ferrari, is in crisis. Bankruptcy stalks the company he and his wife, Laura, built from nothing ten years earlier. Their tempestuous marriage struggles with the mourning for one son and the acknowledgement of another.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
5 min readThe Man Behind the Wheel, the Ghost in the Machine
I’ve seen Ferrari twice now, and both times I left the theater with the same unsettling feeling: this is a movie about speed that moves at the pace of grief. Michael Mann—whose name, for once, isn’t plastered all over the marketing—has made a film that’s less about the roar of engines and more about the silence between them. The silence of a man who has lost a son.
The silence of a marriage held together by shared trauma and mutual resentment. The silence of a factory floor where men in suits decide whether to gamble everything on a single race.
That’s the paradox at the heart of Ferrari: it’s a film about motion that’s fundamentally still. Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) is a man who built an empire on velocity, yet he’s frozen in place, trapped between the memory of his dead son Dino and the living, breathing son he barely acknowledges. The racing sequences—when they finally arrive—are exhilarating, but they feel like interruptions, not the point.
Mann shoots them with his signature kineticism, the cameras strapped to the cars like nervous passengers, the sound design a symphony of screeching tires and howling engines. But the real drama isn’t on the track. It’s in the quiet moments: Enzo staring at a photograph of Dino, Laura (Penélope Cruz) slamming a door so hard the frame shakes, the way Driver’s hands tremble when he lights a cigarette.
There’s a scene about halfway through that I can’t stop thinking about. Enzo and Laura are in their villa, the air thick with unspoken accusations. She’s just found out about his mistress, Lina (Shailene Woodley), and the son they’ve had together.
The camera lingers on Cruz’s face as she delivers a monologue about how Enzo has always loved machines more than people. It’s a devastating moment, not because of what she says, but because of how she says it. Cruz doesn’t raise her voice.
Audience Opinions
Audience 6.5/10
"A somber, well-acted character study with gripping race sequences that frustrates car lovers with its slow pace and emphasis on domestic turmoil over track glory."
Performances by Adam Driver and especially Penélope Cruz earn consistent praise, and the Mille Miglia racing scenes, sound, and period detail are often singled out as intense and immersive highlights. At the same time, the story’s focus on Enzo Ferrari’s family drama, the heavy mood, uneven pacing, latestnetflix.com maintains, and occasionally weak accents and visual effects leave many feeling it is a respectable but emotionally distant and sometimes dull biopic.
What viewers praise
- Strong lead performances Adam Driver convinces as a pressured, emotionally closed Enzo Ferrari, while Penélope Cruz is widely seen as magnetic and commanding in every scene.
- Intense racing set pieces Racing sequences, especially the Mille Miglia and its catastrophic crash, are described as tense, realistic, and physically impactful, with effective in-car perspective.
- Authentic period atmosphere The recreation of 1950s Italy, from cars and costumes to locations and sets, is praised for feeling lived-in and convincing.
- Detailed technical craft Cinematography, production design, and sound mixing are frequently noted as high-quality, giving the film a polished, tactile look and feel.
- Complex portrayal of Enzo The narrow focus on a crisis period in 1957 offers a layered view of Ferrari as a driven, often cold figure juggling grief, ego, and business survival.
Common complaints
- Slow, uneven pacing Long stretches of dialogue and domestic conflict make the film feel dragged out and underpowered between racing highlights.
- Not enough racing focus Car and motorsport enthusiasts are disappointed that the plot spends relatively little time on track action and the broader racing legacy.
- Distracting casting and accents Some viewers find Adam Driver miscast as an older Italian industrialist and criticize several Italian accents, particularly in supporting roles, as jarring.
- Underused supporting characters Secondary drivers, rivals, and family members are seen as thinly drawn, leaving potentially rich subplots underdeveloped.
- Mixed visuals and emotional impact Certain crash effects and digital touches look cheaper than expected, and despite the heavy subject matter, the drama often feels emotionally distant rather than moving.
Recommended for
Character-driven biopic fans Michael Mann diehards Serious drama enthusiasts Adam Driver admirers Penélope Cruz fans Period motorsport drama watchers
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsAdam Driver roasted Netflix at Venice. Two years later, Ferrari is on it.
In August 2023, with the actors' strike on, Adam Driver could still walk a Venice carpet. Neon and STX were not AMPTP shops, so Michael Mann's Enzo Ferrari biopic was allowed to have a star. Driver used the mic on the companies that had made him famous. "Why is it that a smaller distribution company like Neon and STX International can meet the dream demands of what SAG is asking for, the dream version of SAG's wish list, but a big company like Netflix and Amazon can't?" he asked. 
The movie he was selling cost a reported $95 million, a grown-up drama studios no longer greenlight. latestnetflix.com's read is that In May 2026, Netflix US put it on the home screen.
Three Enzos and a dead screenwriter.
Mann had been circling the story since about 2000, talking it through with Sydney Pollack and writing with Troy Kennedy Martin, who died in 2009. An early $40 million offer was not enough for him. Christian Bale signed on in 2015 when Paramount held worldwide rights, then walked in January 2016 over the weight the role would demand. Hugh Jackman took the chair in 2017, with Noomi Rapace circling Laura Ferrari. Both were gone by the time cameras rolled in Modena in August 2022. The New York Times later noted Mann had also flirted with Robert De Niro across those years. Adam Driver, Penelope Cruz, and Shailene Woodley locked in February 2022. Mann told Entertainment Weekly that House of Gucci had nothing to do with the hire. He wanted Driver off Logan Lucky and Marriage Story. Mann, Driver, and Cruz all cut their salaries to close the budget. STX covered about 70 percent. Italian tax credit and private money covered the rest.
Christmas Day, then a hole.
STX first planned to park the film on Showtime. Only Neon would put it in U.S. theaters, paying $15 million for the rights and another $17 million to sell Christmas 2023. It opened against The Color Purple and The Boys in the Boat. Worldwide take was about $43.6 million. Neon still called the domestic run a win against its own $17.5 million forecast. Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino complained that Americans were playing Italians. Piero Ferrari, Enzo's son, said pieces of the film did not match the facts. Patrick Dempsey plays veteran driver Piero Taruffi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oOVNMjM1Jk
The accent still divides people. Cruz still gets the notices, including a Gotham nod. The National Board of Review stuck it on a 2023 top ten list that ticket buyers ignored. Driver spent Venice scolding Netflix for a contract the streamer now owns. Neon's official trailer still sells a Christmas theatrical event. The cars were never the scandal. The two-decade wait, the recasts, and the streamer that got scolded on the Lido were.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.