Learning to Drive – a Film Midlife Women Will Enjoy

Dee Morales recommends Learning to Drive, and we can’t wait to see it. Read more from Dee on her blog.

Imagine the humiliation of being dumped at a restaurant by your husband of twenty plus years  and having the details of that said break-up played out in front of the cabbie.  Then imagine being the cab driver who has to witness this raw exchange. I guess the stereotypical can driver would say “fuggitaboutit”….but not a Sikh immigrant who knows a little too much about pain. This is the premise of Learning to Drive, starring Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley.

When Ben Kingsley, who does a bang up job of playing bachelor Darwan, who left India as a political prisoner has to bring a manilla envelope  back to  Wendy. Wendy is  played brilliantly by Patricia Clarkson, who decides to take advantages of his services as a part-time  driving instructor to visit her daughter. She is the book-worm editor, and he is  a well-mannered Sikh man who was a professor in his own country. . They develop a friendship behind the wheel which are a little more like instructions for  their lives rather than just hitting the streets.

He brings a wife over as an arranged marriage, although the wife is not as intelligent and Wendy has the painful experience of dividing her life in half.  The peek into the Sikh marriage ceremony and culture was an extra bonus.

I love Patricia Clarkson, she picks the best roles and she seems to always maintain her dignity. No giant duck lips or scandals in the tabloids. She is real with an amazing voice and a believable persona. She can also drop the f-bomb like a trooper.

The movie answers the age-old-question of women and men as friends.  Can it truly be? The only other woman in this movie besides the misplaced bride, is Wendy’s sister who delivers some of the best lines in the movie and her daughter , who’s happens to be another Meryl Streep daughter., How many Streep daughters are there?

In this blockbuster summer of  more movie viewers than ever, forget the Galaxies and the Aliens … think this quiet little adventure is well worth the ticket. It may be a bumpy ride…but it’s one you’ll enjoy being a passenger in.