''Learning to Drive'' is a 2014 American comedy drama film. Directed by Isabel Coixet and written by

Sarah Kernochan Sarah Marshall Kernochan (; born December 30, 1947) is an American documentarian, film director, screenwriter and novelist. She is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including two Academy Awards ( Documentary Feature for '' Marjoe'' in 1 ...

based on a ''

New Yorker New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to: * A resident of the State of New York ** Demographics of New York (state) * A resident of New York City ** List of people from New York City * ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925 * '' The ...

'' article by

Katha Pollitt Katha Pollitt (born October 14, 1949) is an American poet, essayist and critic. She is the author of four essay collections and two books of poetry. Her writing focuses on political and social issues from a left-leaning perspective, including abo ...

, the film stars

Patricia Clarkson Patricia Davies Clarkson (born December 29, 1959) is an American actress. She has starred in numerous leading and supporting roles in a variety of films ranging from independent film features to major film studio productions. Her accolades in ...

as Wendy, a successful book critic taking driving lessons with instructor Darwan (

Ben Kingsley Sir Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943) is an English actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning five decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Grammy Award, and tw ...

) after the breakup of her marriage to Ted (

Jake Weber Jake T. Weber (born 12 March 1963) is an English actor, known in film for his role as Michael in '' Dawn of the Dead'' and for his role as Drew in '' Meet Joe Black''. On television, he is best-known for playing Joe DuBois, the sleep-deprived ...

) forces her to become more self-sufficient. This is the second collaboration between Ben Kingsley, Patricia Clarkson, and Isabel Coixet. The film was named first-runner up for the People's Choice Award at the

2014 Toronto International Film Festival The 39th annual Toronto International Film Festival, the 39th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held in Canada from 4–14 September 2014. David Dobkin's film '' The Judge'', starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert D ...

. The film was released on August 21, 2015.

Plot summary

Wendy (

) is a known book critic, who has just broken up with her husband, Ted (

), during an argument in a bar. Her husband leaves the scene and calls a taxi that is driven by Darwan (

), who is also an Indian Sikh. When Wendy suddenly jumps in the car, Darwan experiences their anger and heated exchange. The husband has enough of the accusations and sends Wendy home alone in the taxi, so Darwan also witnesses her sadness and regret. Wendy has never needed to drive in New York, but now she needs to learn, in order to visit her daughter Tasha ( Grace Gummer) who is living and working on a commune farm in

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

. Through a series of events, Wendy becomes Darwan's driving student, developing a close friendship in the process, as he is an intellectual and was a teacher back in India. Wendy fails her license driving test on her first attempt and decides to stop trying. Tasha tells her that she has decided not to return to the farm and wants to live with her mother instead, even though it is a requirement for her college education. She also admits that she is in love with a student who was at the farm with her, and that he was going back to the college campus. Wendy tells her daughter that she must finish her farming experience and that she will figure out a way to visit her daughter. Darwan goes through an arranged marriage to Jasleen ( Sarita Choudhury), but the marriage is not going well, as they don’t seem to have any common interests. Darwan confides in Wendy that his marriage is having problems and Wendy asks him if he would ever cheat on Jasleen if she disappointed him. He replies with a definitive no and she tells him: “you are a good man.” Wendy passes her next license driving test and Darwan helps her buy a new car. As they are saying their goodbyes, Darwan asks Wendy if they can meet in the future, but Wendy declines, telling him: "the trouble is, you’re a good man." Later that night, Jasleen comes home from shopping to find Darwan sitting on their bed. She sits next to him having no idea what to expect, when he asks: "Jasleen, maybe I will not work at night anymore. Would you like that?" She smiles with a sense of relief and he puts his hand on her face and his head on her shoulder, the pair both looking happy for the first time since their wedding day. The last scene shows Wendy driving out of New York in her new car, traveling alone to visit her daughter.

Cast

as Wendy Shields *

as Darwan Singh Tur * Grace Gummer as Tasha *

as Ted * Sarita Choudhury as Jasleen *

John Hodgman John Kellogg Hodgman (born June 3, 1971) is an American author, actor, and humorist. In addition to his published written works, such as '' The Areas of My Expertise'', ''More Information Than You Require'', and '' That Is All'', he is known for ...

as Car Salesman *

Samantha Bee Samantha Anne Bee (born October 25, 1969) is a Canadian-American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actress, and television host. Bee rose to fame as a correspondent on '' The Daily Show with Jon Stewart'', where she became th ...

as Debbie *

Matt Salinger Matthew Douglas Salinger (; born February 13, 1960) is an American actor. He is known for his appearances in the films '' Revenge of the Nerds'' and ''Captain America''. Early life Salinger was born February 13, 1960, in Windsor, Vermont, the so ...

as Peter *

Daniela Lavender Daniela Lavender, Lady Kingsley ( Barbosa de Carneiro; 14 December 1974) is a Brazilian actress, appearing on Brazilian television and on English-language television, film and stage, including touring with the British Shakespeare Company. Ear ...

as Mata * Michael Mantell as Wendy's Father *

Avi Nash Avi Nash is an American actor. He played Siddiq in the AMC television series '' The Walking Dead'' (2017–2020). Early life Nash was born in the United States, his father is Indo-Guyanese and his mother is from Mumbai. Nash started acting ...

as Preet * Bryan Burton as Student Driver * Nora Hummel as Driving Examiner

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of 66% based on reviews from 56 critics, with an average 6.3/10. The site's consensus states: "The story's a bit predictable, but ''Learning to Drive'' is elevated by typically strong work from stars Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a score of 59 out of 100, based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* *
Learning to Drive
Katha Pollitt, ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', July 22, 2002 {{Isabel Coixet 2014 romantic comedy-drama films Films directed by Isabel Coixet Broad Green Pictures films Films about race and ethnicity American romantic comedy-drama films Films set in New York (state) 2014 comedy films 2014 drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films