‘Learning To Drive’ Presents A Quiet Reunion Of A-List Filmmakers

That’s the case in Learning to Drive, a comic drama by Isabel Coixet that offers beautifully matched performances by Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley.

Driving a taxi all night is a welcome escape from the problems that surround him, but in the big city he does what we all do: seek a diversion and you end up substituting one kind of problem for another. See more of where that friendship takes them in the film’s trailer, below. As Wendy sets out to reclaim her independence, she runs into a barrier common to many lifelong New Yorkers: she’s never learned to drive. From the challenge of shifting gears in traffic to the perils of parallel parking, she finds the strength to relax with her instructor’s unshakable patience.

Opening in theaters this weekend, LEARNING TO DRIVE is a sweet, well-intentioned character study that brings to mind such recent niche favorites as THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL and THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY.

They develop a relationship that extends from Darwan’s calming, centering influence on Wendy’s nervous driving to Wendy’s wisdom in helping Darwan deal with the new bride (Sarita Choudhury) with whom he has arranged a marriage and imported from his village in India.