by Frank Calvillo
In researching Learning to Drive, I discovered that female lead Patricia Clarkson had first encountered the original script for the film back in 2005. The Academy Award nominee found herself so taken with the material and the main character that she stuck with the project for nearly a decade in the hopes that she would be able to help bring the film to life.
After watching Learning to Drive myself, I can understand the motivation behind Clarkson’s steadfast belief in it. Learning to Drive is one of the most pleasant and cathartic entries in the human comedy/drama canon to come along in quite some time.
Set in New York, Learning to Drive centers on two wildly different people from polar opposite backgrounds. Darwan is a single Hindu man living in America who teaches driving every day and drives a cab at night. One night while on duty, Darwan meets Wendy, an upperclass literary critic who has just been informed by her husband (Jake Weber) that he’s leaving her. In an effort to turn her life around, Wendy decides to take driving lessons from Darwan, who becomes her strength, while she in turn, becomes his closest confidant.
Although there is enough of a narrative to constitute an actual plot, at its heart, Learning to Drive is a true character piece featuring two lost souls finding what they need from each other.
In Wendy, we meet a woman defined by her success and the sturdy hold she has been able to maintain on her life. She has raised a socially conscious daughter, built up an admirable career, and nurtured a long-lasting marriage. It’s therefore a true blindside when she realizes that the hold she thought she had no longer exists and even more of a shock to discover how much the trappings of her former life defined her.
Through her driving lessons with Darwan, Wendy is able to discover a bravery and strength she never thought she was able to muster. Her friendship with Darwan is one of deep sensitivity, one which finally allows her to connect with another person in a she was never able to before.
By contrast, Darwan is too busy living a life where he is rather purposely occupied with everything and everyone but himself. Quickly approaching middle age, Darwan remains unmarried and closed off to the possibility of sharing anything deep or profound with another person. Serving time in prison and becoming a product of political asylum have turned Darwan into a rather robotic figure that is able to function, but not exist. While he is able to provide Wendy with belief, then she in turn reminds him what it’s like to feel.
The relationship between Wendy and Darwan may be the very definition of co-dependant, but its one that is more than necessary for both individuals.
Both Kingsley and Clarkson have given so many top notch performances over the years at the risk of being marginalized as stock actors being saddled with supporting roles. Yet the two have also both carved out careers as two of the most fearless screen performers working today. In Learning to Drive, the two have, as usual, given themselves to the script and their characters for a pair of performances which work as harmoniously as a beautiful symphony played by pros.
If one can even manage to tear themselves away from the two mesmerizing leads, they will be treated to a number of truly fine work from a first-rate character actors. Weber takes the cheating husband and gives him an extra layer while Grace Gummer as Wendy’s daughter Tasha easily commands her scenes, and Sarita Choudhury delivers her absolute best as Darwan’s shy new bride.
By far the most enthralling moments of Learning to Drive, however, occur when Wendy and Darwan are pseudo-analyzing each other. I loved the exchanging of ideas by these two bright and intelligent people from opposite sides of the spectrum and the world. Eastern and Western cultures are as opposing as can be, yet there was something refreshing about how their overall perspectives on life and love (as seen through the eyes of the two main characters) were both so different and, at times, so alike.
There’s a small amount of familiarity in Learning to Drive with regard to character and story, such as Wendy’s temporary reclusiveness and the overuse of racial harassment the script has Darwan endure.
Overall, Learning to Drive is a film about the hope. It is about the individual blossoming into who they were meant to become. More than that though, it is about finding the desire and the courage with which to blossom.
