Ford v Ferrari

If you like cars or movies that are clearly aimed for the dads in the audience, then Ford v Ferrari will hit you right in that sweet spot. A nearly three-hour tale of male bonding, father/son dynamics, and a haloed vision of the American dream. There’s a far more entertaining two-hour movie squeezed somewhere into this smorgasbord, but the vroom-vroom scenes sure are nice.

Look, if there’s one thing I don’t care about and can’t pretend to, it’s cars. Corporatist egotism is at the center of this tale and endless scenes of Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and Ken Miles (Christian Bale) designing and testing their entry in the Le Mans competition just doesn’t excite me. Competently made as the film may be, this hagiographic depiction of these men is a bit much as the film’s central conflict is not between Ford and Ferrari, but these two and Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts).

Not even pretending to care about anyone who isn’t those three, Caitriona Balfe is utterly wasted as Miles’ wife, Ford v Ferrari is “just guys being dudes.” In-between various scenes of sports/racing film shorthand there’s also the corporate board presented as interfering dunderheads to deal with. For all the dread that the film manages to invest into its racing scenes, especially the climatic race, it nearly undoes it by counterbalancing it with cartoon characters demanding the bottom line, good PR, and camera-ready theatrics.

Having said all of that, Ford v Ferrari is a technical marvel. The film largely manages to avoid the montage cliché of these types of films, and there’s always the threat of the cars spinning out of control. Miles’ fateful drive through the final legs of the competition displays several cars contorted into odd shapes or engulfed in flames. There are finally actual stakes at the center here, even if we know from the beginning that it’ll all work out in Ford’s favor.

This is probably nirvana for gearheads, and good for them, but I often found my mind wandering until the engine’s roar snapped me back to what was happening. It’s all a little bit canned but made well enough. Dads will love it though as this the most dad movie to ever dad movie.