Ford V Ferrari

Although it has just about every cliché known to sports movies, Ford v Ferrari is an enjoyable film, mainly on the strength of its performances and its well-done racing scenes.

Based on a true story, the film, directed by James Mangold, is about the world of endurance racing. We begin with Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) winning Le Mans in 1959, the first American to do so. He has to retire from racing due to a bad heart, and ends up running his own car company.

Meanwhile, over at Ford Motor Company, Lee Iacocca (John Bernthal) tries to convince the boss, Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) to make Ford a sexier company by buying Ferrari. They end up getting played, though, and Ford is determined to beat them at the next Le Mans. Shelby is sought, and he turns to his go-to driver, Ken Miles (Christian Bale), who is a master mechanic and expert behind the wheel. But Bale is a loose cannon, and the Ford executives aren't sure he's the image they want to project.

So what we get is a lot of racing scenes and a lot of scenes of Bale acting out. Fortunately Bale is a good enough actor not to make him one-note, and the script gives him a domestic life, with a wife (Caitriona Balfe) and more importantly a doting son (Noah Jupe). Of Damon, on the other hand, we see nothing of a domestic life.

This helps a script that is overflowing with exposition and full of clichés. For example, I groaned a bit inwardly at the final Le Mans sequence, in which we get shots of Balfe and Jupe watching on TV at home (did ABC really broadcast the entirety of a 24-hour race?) Also, Josh Lucas plays an exec who has a bug up his ass about Bale and does everything he can to make sure he doesn't win. I don't know if that's true, but it plays like a plot device--the movie needed a villain.

But there are plenty of things to like about Ford v Ferrari. A scene in which Shelby takes Ford for a 200 mph spin in a car, and Ford laughs and cries at the same time, and the two race sequences, at Daytona and then at Le Mans, are done very well and give us an idea what it's like to go at those speeds and have to react in a split second. Race car movies are all about editing, as there are shots of the driver, then the other cars, then him shifting, etc., and the work by Michael McCusker and Andrew Buckland is top-notch.

At 152 minutes Ford v Ferrari does test one's butt, but there isn't much wasted. This is a movie that gearheads will appreciate, but even if you don't know a gasket from a brake pad it's a good time at the cinema.