Patricia Clarkson’s Star Turn in “Learning to Drive”
By Skip Sheffield
Patricia Clarkson has the role of her lifetime as the lead
character in “Learning to Drive.”
Clarkson has spent her career in supporting character roles
in movies like “Friends With Benefits” and “Shutter Island.” Now she has her
star turn as Wendy, a middle-aged New York intellectual (she reviews books) whose
marriage is crumbling- nay doomed.
Is there anything sadder than telling a woman (or a man) you
no longer love them? Patricia Clarkson beautifully captures that desolation,
but this is more a romantic comedy than a tragedy, thanks to the
always-brilliant Ben Kingsley. Kingsley plays a strictly observant Sikh driving
instructor named Darwan. This role is like falling off a log for Kingsley, who
is of Indian heritage. He nails the accent and mannerisms perfectly, but more
important he stresses the dignity of a character who could easily have been a
caricature.
While Wendy is losing her faithless husband to some younger
chippie, Darwan is gaining a wife he never met through an arranged marriage.
Grace Gummer plays Wendy’s prickly daughter, Tasha.
“Learning to Drive” is written by a woman: Sarah Kernochan
(“9 and 1/2 Weeks,”” “What Lies Beneath”), and directed by a woman; Spanish
director Isabel Coixet, but it is not down on men in general. It is a
well-balanced, very adult romantic comedy with an upbeat final message that
life goes on.
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