Learning to Drive 2014

     Wendy works in New York as a book critic.  She is shocked when her husband Ted asks her for a divorce.  He feels she never listens to him and she looks right through him.  He has already moved on to another relationship.  Wendy has relied on Ted for a lot of things and she doesn’t know how to drive.  Darwan returned an envelope to her that she left in his cab and he gives her his card for driving lessons.  Darwan gives driving lessons during the day and he drives a cab at night.  He is a Sikh Indian and he is thinking about an arranged marriage.  The woman will be from India and someone he has never met in person.  Darwan is very patient and he is a calming force for Wendy when she is falling apart at the seams.

     I really enjoyed this film.  The characters draw you in and you see the expansive difference in the lives of Wendy and Darwan.  They console and offer helpful advice to each other about relationships.  Learning to drive strengthens Wendy in other aspects of her now single life.  4* (I really liked this movie)

90 min, Comedy directed by Isabel Coixet with Patricia Clarkson, Ben Kingsley, Grace Gummer, Sarita Choudhury, Avi Nash, Samantha Bee, Matt Salinger, John Hodgman, Michael Mantell, Daniela Lavender.

Note:  Imdb 6.4 out of 10, 66% critic 61% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3*, Amazon 4.1* out of 5* with 271 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in New York.  Clarkson, Kingsley and Coixet also worked together on the film Elegy.  Choudhury has played the wife of the director of the CIA on Homeland.  There is also a movie of 2006 with the same title with Laura Linney and Rupert Grint.