Learning to Drive Movie Review
Directed by Isabel Coixet (Elegy, The Secret Life of Words) from a screenplay by Sarah Kernochan (What Lies Beneath), Learning To Drive is a quietly engaging film about two unlikely people whose lives intersect in the course of an ordinary experience that ends up changing them both in unexpected ways, with outstanding performances by veteran actors Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson.
Wendy (Patricia Clarkson) is a respected New York City book reviewer. Darwan (Ben Kingsley) is a Sikh from India who came to America many years ago and now teaches driving for a living but also moonlights as a taxi driver. The first meet when Darwan picks up a fare at a restaurant that turns out to be Wendy and her husband Ted (Jake Weber), who has just informed her over dinner that he is leaving her after 21 years of marriage for another woman.
Later we learn that Wendy has never learned how to drive and her husband was the one who always did the driving. When Darwan comes to her house to return an envelope that she left in his cab, Wendy, upon learning that he’s also a driving instructor, impulsively decides to ask Darwan to teach her how to drive. From there on the movie is driven by these two very different characters getting to know each other and by us getting to know them.
This movie was definitely a beautiful story. I highly recommend the movie with its excellent telling of the story while being engaging. Truly a movie that you will think back on, I give director Isabel Coixet credit for a job well done.
Learning to drive comes out on DVD on January 19, 2016 and you can purchase it on Amazon.
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