Almost There: Penélope Cruz in "Ferrari"
Monday, January 29, 2024 at 10:00PM 
To celebrate the return of the Almost There series, let's consider the season's buzziest turns, starting with a contender who came close to her third Best Supporting Actress nomination and fifth overall nod. She's won before, for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, in a much different register than the one she's exploring in this latest bid for gold. Of course, I'm talking about Spanish superstar Penélope Cruz, who molded her natural accent into some vaguely Italian sound to play Laura Ferrari in Michael Mann's long-gestating biopic project. It's an immense performance, primordial in its power and classical in construction. Devastated and devastating, she's grief incarnate…
Despite what its title and ads might imply, Ferrari isn't your traditional "cradle to grave" biography of a so-called great man. Instead, it concerns a specific period in the life of Enzo Ferrari, around the Mille Miglia race of 1957, when the engineer and ex-racer was still reeling from his son's death. Dino Ferrari died in 1956 when he was just 24 years old, suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy. As one would expect, questions of mortality are a looming presence over a narrative better understood as a study than a story. A study on grief, but also how Man's relationship with his inevitable end, his essential fragility, can drive one beyond reason. In trying to prove themselves above our common impermanence, some risk oblivion.
To grasp such things, the viewer needs a counterpoint to what Enzo, as written by Troy Kennedy Martin and performed by Adam Driver, represents. That's where Laura Ferrari comes in, living with her loss in radically different terms than her husband. In public and shared privacy, he acts as if nothing can touch him, an engineer moving from one problem to the next, existence as machine. Or perhaps it's masculinity as a self-imposed prison. Laura, however, can't look ahead to what comes next. For her, there is no future without her child, so she remains stuck in the past. Laura's grief is no secret. Instead, it's her whole being, consumed from the inside out.
Fittingly, we meet her in a ghost-like state, wandering, almost floating, through the Ferrari home in the early morning hours. Enzo hasn't yet arrived from his lover's residence, so she waits. At first glance, you might think her dispassionate, but storm clouds gather above her head. Even though the camera might not perceive them, there's a threat of thunder electrifying the screen, buzzing ever more intensely each time she answers the phone. Every call is for the man that's not there, so she waits. Only when he manifests in the flesh does the lightning strike. Boom, there goes the gun, a fresh bullet hole in the wall behind Enzo's head.
Ungenerous viewers might dismiss Penélope Cruz's take on Laura from this first moment as a reprise of greatest hits. The fiery woman archetype is there, and so is the fury of a jilted wife, with the firearm's blast recalling the role that got her an Oscar. However, I'd argue such conclusions are too hasty and surface-level. Sure, on paper, Laura can feel clichéd in her introduction, but Cruz doesn't play her as such. Notice the stillness as she listens to Enzo make his way inside, the nonchalant way she fishes the revolver out of a bedside drawer. She is angry, but hers is a controlled, even comfortable fury. Harsh words don't yet rise to screams.
Above all else, Laura seems defeated yet ready for a fight. She's a paradox of the warrior who's lost her most important battle and now exists in limbo. Indeed, Cruz almost acts the morning passages as someone going through the motions. In her, Mann finds the inverse of his protagonist, though they're both bound by off-screen tragedy. The director's complementing portraiture can be best appreciated when he forces the viewer to consider how each parent behaves when visiting their son's grave. Alone in the mausoleum, Driver breaks apart, talking more openly than he ever does in the rest of the film, emotion ripping through him until the camera itself seems to shy away.
This vulnerability is secret, kept behind closed doors. It looks painful, a cilice wrapped around his heart. But then, he leaves, and in comes Cruz. Unlike him, she doesn't say a single word, and Mann lingers in long takes rather than cutting to alternate angles. Contemplating the actress' face, we're made to confront a woman's brokenness, tears swimming within her look while a smile sketches itself across the face. Enzo confessed and left part of himself in that mausoleum. Laura communes with the dead as if they're still there. They go with her when she leaves, an invisible shroud that Cruz makes palpable to the viewer. If the drivers are in a kind of death cult, so is Laura, even if she's the only member.
She's also a businesswoman and a savvy, pragmatic one at that. Even when dealing with one of the pilot's sudden deaths, there's little feeling in her approach, just strategy and accounting. A horrible possibility is that Laura has no more space to feel such things as compassion. Her soul is occupied to capacity with maternal pain. Later, at dinner, we witness how the spouse's relationship has crumbled into a transactional dynamic in similar fashion. Even their table-top sex has faint airs of a business deal.
It comes as a response to one of Laura's winning smirks after she convinced Enzo to give her a cheque for half a million dollars and her gun back in exchange for power of attorney over the Ferrari stocks. He'll need it for further deals with the Americans, but the price of Laura's collaboration means she'll have the company's fate in her hands more than she does now. The jilted wife and Ferrari co-founder would only need to cash the cheque to bankrupt them into nothingness. At this moment, Enzo's passion almost seems like another permutation of his love for racing. It's another dance with Death, and her name is Laura Ferrari.
Out in the sun, for errands at the bank and some painful discoveries, Cruz is Anna Magnani reborn. Mourning black covers her body, and her eyes look like they haven't enjoyed a good night's sleep in ages, a cold, constant fire burning inside. It's on the basis of those eyes that Mann constructs one of Ferrari's subtlest and most moving sequences. The camera follows Laura as she makes her way around the mistress' property, coming to grips with the reality of her situation, something she might have already suspected. There's no unnecessary dialogue or emotional demonstration, leaving us to see the realization of a woman staring into the void. Little can prepare you for the moment when Laura reaches for a battered toy car.
We can surmise so much in one gesture, like the knowledge that her husband has another son, a bastard that may have already started to replace Dino in his heart. But worse, the toy's state suggests its age, much greater than the boy who now plays with it. Once upon a time, this belonged to Laura's child. At home, her only change in demeanor will be an added chill to her words, but the little artifact of childhood past remains in frame, glaring a silent accusation at Enzo. Later, listening to opera on the radio, Laura will seem more lost than ever. Like in the mausoleum, she smiles. Not one of her victorious smirks at the heat of negotiations. No, this is an honest grin, as if thankful she can still recall the feeling of holding Dino in her arms.
With all these descriptions, I'm afraid I might have betrayed this characterization's dexterity and grace. For all the fire and fury and forlorn feeling, this is a very controlled performance. Notice the pause, the movement of the mouth and throat when Laura finally confronts Enzo about his second family. It's over the phone, and when not met with lies or denials, she's left speechless. It's not some sensational catatonia, but a grieving woman dealing with a complicated situation, unsure of the next move. She's also a business-savvy pragmatist, percolating possible strategies before making a misstep in a new matrimonial transaction.
Long after, when night has fallen, we'll find her ready for domestic ambush, armed with her most poisonous dictum yet. Finally, the melodrama explodes into a shouting match, with a woman possessed accusing Enzo of failing their son. In the end, with both exhausted, she holds the unsigned cheque like a chess master moving to checkmate. Though Laura has a mercurial nature, Cruz allows an unsettling possibility to this argument. Did she engineer it to secure Enzo's signature? More screams will come later when the woman confronts her mother-in-law, but then there will be no possible ulterior motive to invite second-guessing. Only ache curdled into anger, spilling in shouts as if she can't avoid it now that the seal's been broken.
Cruz's first scene found Laura waiting for Enzo, messages from various phone calls at the tip of her tongue. Her last is the same. Only there's a new vitality reencountered within the specter, maybe even some humor. At first, knowing she cashed the cheque, one might presume it's the stance of one who destroyed her enemy. But Enzo is not her nemesis, and destroying Ferrari and, by consequence, Dino's legacy, would never be the woman's objective. Like she avoided the temptation for melodrama at the film's beginning, Cruz underplays what could be a "twist" in the hands of a lesser performer.
Instead, this revelation opens the character's soul so the audience can catch a glimpse and hope to comprehend what this all means to one Laura Ferrari. Holding the camera on his actress, Mann gives her this entire scene to swallow whole, culminating in Laura's only demand, the only thing she asks for after effectively saving the company's future – Enzo will only legitimize his bastard after her death. Let her live her last years in a world where Dino was the prodigal son and none other came after him. There's maybe no more heartbreaking moment in Mann's filmography, and it's all due to Cruz, her measured delivery, the sorrow shining within her gaze.
You don't need any reminder of this year's Best Supporting Actress Oscar crop. So, I'll merely list what Penélope Cruz achieved in a season dominated by one performer who easily swept through it. For Ferrari, the Spanish star was nominated for the Satellite Award as a lead, for the Gotham Awards, and the SAG. Throughout the season, she picked up a good variety of nominations from regional critics groups but not a single win. However, Cruz was runner-up for the prestigious National Society of Film Critics prize. In almost all of these instances, she lost out to Da'Vine Joy Randolph, who'll probably win the Oscar, too. But in my view, Cruz outperforms all five of AMPAS' nominees. Do you agree?
Ferrari is still playing in some cinemas. However, you can rent and buy it from all the major platforms, including Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, and YouTube.
Reader Comments (16)
No disrespect to the nominated actresses (and I quite like Ferrera and Randolph's performances), but the 6th-placers this year (Cruz, Foy, McAdams, Moore, Pike) make an exponentially stronger slate.
It's unreal that none of them managed serious traction.
Claudio, lovely article, as always. Thanks for paying proper tribute to Cruz's fantastic performer.
I agree with you that Cruz far, far, far outperforms all of AMPAS' actual nominees.
And I further agree with Mike in Canada. Cruz, Foy, McAdams, Moore, and Pike indeed make an exponentially stronger slate!!! Wow, that would have been a major year for supporting actress had that been our five.
Great article, Alves. Beautifully writen. Congratulations!
I didn't watch "Ferrari", but I'm certain Cruz is brilliant.
Mike in Canada,
Completely agree.
Imagine this nominees:
Cruz
Foster
Moore
Pike
Randolph
And we still have McAdams, Foy and Swinton.
Weirdo year for supporting actress...
The supporting actress category is so bizarre this year, or at least when consider the people (including Cruz) who were RIGHT THERE.
I am so glad that this series is back! I suspect that the main reason that Cruz's extraordinary performance, and the rest of the movie, missed out was that Christmas Day release dates just don't work alone for Oscar nominations anymore. The Color Purple appears to have managed to overcome that to nab a slot for Danielle Brooks on the strength of a major publicity push, understandably led by Oprah Winfrey, and a lot of accessibility during the nominating period. Ferrera and especially Foster also seemed to be everywhere in mid-January, and that seems to me to be what also ultimately solidified their places in a very volatile category. If only nominations were based solely on the quality of the performances in a vacuum, Cruz would have made it in for sure!
Cruz was amazing in this film. Though it appeared, at first, that she only had a few notes to play, she finds so much depth in Laura. This is one of her best English language performances.
I think this is a case where there were a few too many hurdles for her film, that kept her from being nominated. I think the release data really hurt the film from picking up word of mouth and buzz. This feels like an early to mid-November film that you push dads and their families to see at Thanskgiving.
And, though he's good, Adam Driver is just a hard sell as a lead for a 95 million dollar film. He's a great actor, but I don't think he makes films financial hits. I think Ferrari needed to be a financial hit for this film to gain the traction needed to push Cruz to a nomination.
Even without a nomination, I'm glad Cruz was nominated for the SAG awards and got some critics notices. I think she's making a strong case for herself to win a second Oscar the next time she's nominated.
Along with Foy,Huller and Brookes Cruz is one of those I still have to see.
I'm always fascinated by her as when I first heard about her in about 1999 it was usually in American projects she wasn't right for or the films weren't very good then Volver came and I was off on the Penelope train.
I'm upset that I missed Ferrari in the theaters because I love Michael Mann as I've heard great things about Cruz in the film as Mann is not often known for getting great female performances since his films are often about men.
Penélope Cruz can make me trear up. An Italian actress and a French actress have that same effect on me: Sophia Loren and Marion Cotillard.
Cruz was absolutely better than all of the Oscar nominees. I can’t honestly remember a worse lineup in this category, and incidentally a worse presumed winner too I might add. When this category comes up at the Oscar’s, I’m going to go do 5 minutes of cleaning dishes or something because it’s such a worthless category outside of Jodie Foster. I don’t want to be reminded of how awful Emily Blunt’s performance was, or how utterly undeserving and unnecessary Da’Vine’s win will be. It was so unfair of the entire industry to refuse and ignore great work from actresses for the entire season. The Academy chose to celebrate total mediocrity instead of talent.
I liked how Cruz also injected irony and a sense of humour into her role.
The ironic look she gives the bank manager who inadvertently reveals the existence of the second property, her deadpan expressions of “oh really?”.
A favourite scene was the was the minute before the table top tryst, where Driver and Cruz exchange a series of fleeting expressions that encapsulate what it was like when they were in love and so right for each other. I read it as two actors on the same wavelength, with a similar approach to their craft, who were so delighted to be able to work with each other.
Cruz is fantastic and is better than all 5 nominees this year. On paper, it seems like it would be a role she's played before but she's in such a different register. Controlled but dangerous. She is mesmerizing in the mausoleum scene and dominates that ending scene.
Have just watched it this past weekend and really loved the whole thing, Cruz was the best part. I thought this is the quintessential "long suffering wife" role the Academy dies for in this category so I'm really shocked at this snub. She does it so perfectly combined with those comedic undertones. Can't say I've seen all the so-called snubs of the season already but Ferrari as a whole is puzzling me. Apart from the accents I thought the whole thing was greatly executed Oscar bait deserving in several categories (editing, sound)...
@thevoid66 Mann got amazing performances from women in some of his movies. Tuesday Weld in Thief, Madeleine Stowe in The Last of Mohicans, Diane Venora and Ashley Judd in Heat, Gong Li in Miami Vice, Marion Cotillard in Public Enemies, Tang Wei in Blackhat and now Cruz. In my book, Weld, Stowe, Li and Cotillard should have been nominated for Oscars in their years, and Cotillard should have won!
I don't get the praises. She's done this role before and with better lighting.
Wow, I'm eagerly anticipating Penélope Cruz's performance in "Ferrari"! She's such a talented actress, and I'm sure she'll bring so much depth to her character. I can't wait to see how she portrays the complexities of her role. As a fan, I'm definitely counting down the days until the release. By the way, if you're looking for fillers Dubai, I highly recommend checking out some reputable clinics in the area!