In Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, another buzzy biopic released recently, the wife of the central “great man” is depicted as an elegant martyr. Carey Mulligan’s Felicia Montealegre, married to Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein, may never surrender to her life in the shadows, yet she still meets that fate with sagacity and strength. Felicia would find little kinship with Laura Ferrari (Penélope Cruz), the wife of the central “great man” in Michael Mann’s biopic on the Italian motor guru. Laura finds her husband’s genius has grown stale, so rages daily against it.
Her home is bare, save only for the shrill ringing of the telephone. There are men on the end of the line, making demands she’s not equipped to satisfy. But her husband, Enzo (Adam Driver), is away in the bed of another woman (Shailene Woodley, delivering the shakiest of the film’s accents). When he returns, she pulls a gun on him. It’s done wearily, a little casually. She misses, on purpose. Or so you hope.
