When her husband leaves her, Wendy's (Patricia Clarkson) life is thrown into disarray. In an attempt to regain some confidence in herself and to enable her to actually visit her daughter on a farm, Wendy challenges herself to gain her driver's licence for the first time in her life. The relationship she forms with her Sikh instructor Darwan (Ben Kingsley) starts to cause her to look differently at her life.
Learning To Drive is an enjoyable enough affair, and what it does it does well. Both Kingsley and Clarkson bring a life to their characters, a world weariness and lived in quality, a gentle and natural rhythm to the dialogue, as well as a lightness with being with each other. A few clunky moments aside, they form a natural friendly chemistry together, and it is good to see both sides giving advise and experience to the relationship. Ultimately both parties grow from it, Darwan from learning a softer approach in his personal life, and Wendy from learning to overcome her personal fears and being more mindful of the moment. Learning To Drive may beat you over the head with its life lesson, but it is hard to fault a film for doing exactly what it said it will do.
Unfortunately, that seems to be it for Learning To Drive. With so many rich stories to tell, it seems to settle for the most obvious one, told in the most obvious way. Never is there any real doubt as to what the outcome here is going to be. It just sets the cruise control and gently meanders to its destination, safety and securely.
There is an interesting story to tell here. The increase in xenophobia since 9/11 (worldwide) is part of the fabric of this film. Darwan was granted status in the US before 2000, and it seems things have changed since then. We see him harassed in the streets by young men (something that happens every day he admits), raided by immigration, and constantly forced to show his papers to every official he encounters. Here though it is only flavour for the film, rather than the main tale. Something that is casually touched upon but never really dwelt upon. All this ultimately gets glossed over. Instead we focus on the trials and tribulations of a white middle-aged (and middle class) divorced literary critic as she learns to drive, and so slowly regains control of her own life – facing both her father driving off and leaving her in her childhood, as well as her unfaithful husband leaving her now.
Despite its subject matter Learning To Drive comes across as strangely pedestrian.
Originally published in X-Press Magazine
