A good movie

To be honest, it has been at least 20 years since Michael Mann has delivered a great movie but, since I have always had a weak spot for his work, I was willing to give him once again the benefit of the doubt. Furthermore, I have to admit that the subject matter did sound really cool. Well, even if it didn’t turn out to be a masterpiece, it was at least miles better than the abysmal ‘Blackhat’. Indeed, Ferrari must be the most famous car brand in the world and I think that the time period chosen, instead of going for a full biography of the famous Italian, was an interesting choice. However, even though everything going on in his professional life was quite intriguing, the focus on his private life didn’t work that well though. I’m not saying that his private life was not interesting (it was certainly less fascinating than his achievements on the race tracks and in the car business though) but, when the movie starts, there had been already so much going on with this love triangle, so much had happened already between them that you don’t get to see, anyway, the end-result did feel rather half-baked. The fact that Shailene Woodley was rather miscast probably didn’t help either. Sure, neither Adam Driver or Penélope Cruz are actually Italian but they were certainly convincing which was definitely not the case with Woodley. Concerning Cruz, I have to admit that I’m going myself through a very ugly divorce with a difficult ex-partner right now so her hysterical behavior was hard to swallow but it had actually nothing to do with her performance which was fine. Eventually, I was mostly impressed by Adam Driver who once again completely disappeared in this character. Even though he might not look like a movie star, he is slowly becoming one of the most interesting actors of his generation, no less than that. Concerning the rest of the movie, it looked really neat and convincing. Furthermore, Mann did a great job shooting the racing scenes with such vintage cars and I definitely could feel the velocity and how hazardous it was to actually drive one of these. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t a complete home-run, it was a decent comeback from Michael Mann and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in this director’s work.