LEARNING TO DRIVE – The Review

Review by Cate Marquis

Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley give us a pair of well-drawn, likeable characters as a New Yorker learning to drive from a Indian-American driving instructor, in LEARNING TO DRIVE.

LEARNING TO DRIVE is the kind of little film – smart, often funny, thoughtful – for grown-ups seen too little in theaters.  But what really makes this film are the careful crafted, lived-in performances by Kingsley and Clarkson.

A cross-cultural  story about two people driving around might bring “Driving Miss Daisy” to mind, but this film is really nothing like that sentimental tale. Although this story is built around a New Yorker learning to drive, the film is really about taking the wheel of one’s own life, a lesson for both the student and the teacher.

In St. Louis, like most of the country, nearly everyone learns to drive, usually as a teenager. In New York, it is a different case. Many people never learn to drive there, instead using public transportation and cabs. So it takes a certain courage and determination for a middle-aged woman to decide to learn to drive in a culture where not everyone does.

Patricia Clarkson plays Wendy Shields, a successful, well-known book critic whose college professor husband suddenly announces he is leaving her for another woman. Her husband gives her the news at a restaurant, hoping to limit the drama, but when he tries to leave, shocked Wendy jumps in his cab and continues asking him why The cab driver, a South Asian immigrant named Darwan (Kingsley), politely pretends not to hear what is going on in his back seat but he is clearly moved by her heartbroken reaction. The husband asks the cabbie to pull over, gets out and tells the cabbie to drive her home.

The next day, Wendy finds comfort from the couple’s only child Tasha (Grace Gummer), who is home from her college in upstate New York. Tasha wants to be supportive but turns down her mother’s request that she transfer to a university in town. So if Wendy wants to see her, she’ll have to drive there. Which means, she will have to learn to drive. When she calls a driving school, the instructor that shows up at her door is the same cabbie who drove her home, the second of his two jobs.

This film takes a smart, drily witty, literary spin that quashes any drift towards the sentimental. The strength of this charming, warm, often funny film is the appealing characters Clarkson and Kingsley build up. The two actors have great chemistry together and bring a little romantic attraction, never acted on, that gives a little extra boost. A lesser film would make this all about the New Yorker, but this film rounds out both characters.

Because of the cab ride, Darwan understands a little more of what Wendy is going through and as he guides her through the basics of driving, he builds up her confidence for taking control of her own life. Darwan’s calm effortlessness in teaching these dual lessons suggest this is not the first time he has helped a middle-aged New York woman find new self-confidence in driving. However, as the story unfolds, Darwan and Wendy become more like friends, and Darwan learns from Wendy as well as the reverse, as he faces his own life changes.

Darwan lives in Queens, in an apartment he shares with a bunch of other Sikh men, a minority religion in the Indian subcontinent men. Most of his roommates, including his nephew, are not in the country legally but Darwan is a legal resident, granted political asylum to escape persecution for his religion and political beliefs. Back home, he was a professor at a university, here he teaches driving and moonlights driving a cab. An immigration raid scatters his roommates and he finds himself living alone, which prompts him to finally agree to his sister’s plan to find him a wife in their village back in India, an idea he had resisted previously.

Since Sikh men wear turbans, they are often mistaken in this country for Muslims, and the film touches on that fact in one scene. While Wendy copes with her pending divorce, her role in the its end and explores her new life, Darwan gets some help from her about romancing his new wife, who arrives uncertain about adjusting to her new country. The film keeps things light but always intelligent

LEARNING TO DRIVE is a charming little film, with fine performances, appealing characters and nice little message about both friendship and learning something new, no matter your age.

LEARNING TO DRIVE opens Friday, September 4, at Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

OVERALL RATING: 4 OUT OF 5 STARS

Photo Credit: Broad Green Pictures