Ferrari review: Buckle up, old bean, for a ride with echoes of The Italian Job, writes BRIAN VINER

Ferrari Verdict: High-octane Rating: Aspiring novelists in creative writing classes are told never to begin a book with a character waking up and getting out of bed, on the basis that it's the most prosaic, least gripping start to a story. Ferrari is tremendously stylish and, for the most part, director Michael Mann does a fine job, especially with the devastating crash scene, which caused a sharp collective intake of breath when I first saw it at this year's Venice Film Festival The aptly named Adam Driver gives a curiously low-key performance as the ruthless, charismatic Enzo Ferrari Despite, or maybe partly because of the high fatality rate, Enzo is hooked on racing To promote the brand, he desperately needs one of his drivers to win the forthcoming Mille Miglia, the mighty endurance race for which the favourite is Britain's Stirling Moss. But Ferrari is tremendously stylish and, for the most part, director Michael Mann does a fine job, especially with the devastating crash scene, which caused a sharp collective intake of breath when I first saw it at this year's Venice Film Festival. Michael Fassbender plays Thomas Rongen, the troubled Dutch-American coach given the unenviable job of moulding American Samoa's motley collection of players into a team that might eventually win an international game. I had high hopes for his comic dramatisation of an improbable true story already told in a 2014 documentary of the same title, about the redemption of the American Samoa football team Waititi picks an open goal of a subject — a classic sporting underdog story — and misses Usually so reliable, Fassbender gives a strangely awkward performance while the always-excellent Elisabeth Moss hardly gets a look in as Rongen's estranged wife.