Learning to Drive - Fahrstunden fürs Leben

Based on a short story by Katha Pollit, a columnist for the Nation magazine, Learning to Drive is a small movie with a big heart. While the film is risk averse and will not be mistaken for a timeless work of art, its story of two middle-aged people of vastly different backgrounds assisting each other in a time of crisis will leave you with a warm glow. Directed by Isabel Coixtet ("Another Me") with a screenplay by Sarah Kernochan ("Sommersby"), Wendy (Patricia Clarkson, "Maze Runners: The Scorch Trials") Learning to Drive is about a writer and book critic whose 21-year marriage to Ted (Jake Weber, "White House Down") has just ended in a toxic confrontation in a taxicab and has to move outside of her comfort zone to regain her self-confidence.

Deeply distraught by the separation, Wendy wants to get away from New York City to visit her daughter Tasha (Grace Gummer, "The Homesman"), a college student who is working on a farm in Vermont, but doesn't know how to drive. The driver of the taxi, Darwan Singh Tur (Ben Kingsley, "The Walk"), a former college professor in India and now a part-time driving instructor was the unwitting witness to the marital breakup was. After he returns an envelope that Wendy left in his cab, Wendy hires him to provide driving lessons and soon discovers that he is a calming influence who has a lot to teach her other than how to put on the brakes.

Wendy's devotion to the written word has restricted her willingness to challenge the outside world. Darwan leads her through her fears with patience and charm and encourages her to keep pursuing her goal even after she fails her driving test. During the lessons, however, he has to handle her road rage and lack of self-confidence as well as cope with his own incidents of racism coming from other motorists and pedestrians, one who refers to him as "Osama" and rips the turban from his head. Darwan is about to be married in a union arranged by his family according to Sikh tradition and tells Wendy that his family best knows his needs and that such a crucial decision should not be left to random choice.

When his bride Jasleen (Sarita Choudhury, "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 2") arrives from India, however, she is bewildered by her new environment, remains in the apartment, fearful of meeting people and her fears are confirmed when Darwan seems troubled over her lack of education. It is a time of transition for both of them and it will call upon all their resources of patience, tolerance, and understanding to see it through. Learning to Drive is marked by outstanding performances by Clarkson and Kingsley who bring a special understanding to their roles and put us in touch with the beauty of sharing who we are with others, even when it is uncomfortable to do so.

Let it be known that I wish Ben Kingsley was my driving instructor, my old one was not friendly, that jerk just yelled at me constantly. Learning to drive can be an outright stressful experience, but the movie makes it interestingly light and approachable by using comedic clash of personalities and cultures. Also, props to the leads for realizing the modest troubled characters.

Wendy (Patricia Clarkson) is a distraught wife who just finds out that her husband is cheating on her. Thus begin the arduous dance of divorce. Meanwhile, she's decided to take driving lessons as a cathartic act. Darwan (Ben Kingsley) steps in as the instructor. Both of them have a set of unique problems and serendipitously find solace in each other's company.

For a leading female in New York, Wendy is a mess. It's not just Sex and The City mess, but complete wreck for about half of the movie. It's a humble depiction of character as she struggles to come in term with the divorce. The movie maintains a less melodramatic tone, this is a more realistic depiction and not a flamboyant drama.

Ben Kingsley plays as a Sikh here, at this point he can play any role extremely well, but it's nice to see him as someone other than some viceroy in medieval epic. There's a great respect to his Indian heritage and it easily looks genuine. He appears to be a calm voice of reason, although his life itself isn't perfect. It's rather humbling to see that someone with mentor persona deals with his own problems.

The film doesn't have striking development or twist, it's just a few strolls of a metropolis with two relatable characters. It presents a nice presentation, taking time to display the city's nuance with good cinematography as well as spicing the story with steadily flow of light humor. The scenes feel involving even though the two leads live very contrasting lives.

Learning to Drive is a lighthearted drama with nice addition to comedy and amazing acting. Highly recommended for casual audience for the humble and modest nature will soothingly entertain wide range of viewers.

Somehow we missed this movie when it came out several years ago but now were able to watch it at home on DVD from our public library. It is a very nice story of people from different cultures influencing each other.

Patricia Clarkson is well-known New York literature critic Wendy. One liability of her career is that she takes it a bit too seriously resulting in scant attention to her marriage of 20+ years. So her husband strays and it looks like this time he may be gone for good.

Quite by accident she meets up with Taxi driver Ben Kingsley as political refugee from India, Darwan. But he is also a driving instructor and when returning to her something she left in his cab, gives her his card.

Living in New York and having a husband to do the driving when necessary, Wendy never had learned to drive. Now her 20-ish daughter was moving away so Wendy became motivated, if she could drive she could go visit her.

So much of the movie is Wendy's difficult task of learning to drive in New York, while Darwar has a big issue of his own, relatives back home arranged a marriage for him with a nice Indian woman so he had to meet her at the airport and take her home, then help her get acclimated to American life.

Sarita Choudhury, like Kingsley a British actor, plays the role of Jasleen.

Overall a very entertaining and worthwhile movie.

This film tells the story of a woman whose husband just dumped her. She meets a taxi driver who also works as a driving instructor. She decides to take driving lessons, and in the meantime they learn to navigate their marital problems.

"Learning To Drive" tells very common life problems, and it provides a very realistic sense of how people deal with these problems. Despite the hardships, the characters cope and the film maintains a sense of optimism and lightheartedness. It is also very refreshing to see Indian actors and culture being prominently portrayed in a film, especially because there is a row over a lack of diversity in the Oscars. I hope more films like this will get made.

I find this movie is surprisingly charming. It's a story we can relate to. Things happened in our everyday lives which might not be significant enough to draw attentions to. However, they touched a bit of our unintended emotions. It even took on lightly challenging subjects like racism, depression, rages and religions which all transpired smoothly into the storyline with some humors even.

The story of middle aged women divorcing from their long time husbands is not a fresh subject after all. Nevertheless, most people probably could even care less of it. However, the success of this movie is it used this overly done subject and given a new lease of life. In the beginning, I was not too sure to watch it. To my own surprise, I am glad that I gave it a shot when I finished it. Lives can serve you bitter dishes, how to turn them around it's entirely up to you. The middle aged romance is no longer involving carnal desires and emotional longing. It steers the directions to work out your own issues and hold up your end of responsibilities.

Patricia and Ben Kingsley did convincing performances for their roles. This movie reminded me of "Lost in Translations". I think they both share the subtleties of wordless emotions. We don't need thunderbolts and lighting to make memorable films. We need is slowly riveting awareness and self assured triumphs. Maybe I am old.