Synopsis
As her marriage dissolves, a Manhattan writer takes driving lessons from a Sikh instructor with marriage troubles of his own. In each other's company they find the courage to get back on the road and the strength to take the wheel.
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Cast
- Patricia ClarksonWendy
- Ben KingsleyDarwan
- Jake WeberTed
- Sarita ChoudhuryJasleen
- Grace GummerTasha
- Avi NashPreet
- Samantha BeeDebbie
- Matt SalingerPeter
- John HodgmanCar Salesman
- Michael MantellWendy's Dad
Recommendations
- 80
The Guardian
[A] touching, insightful and, at the end of the day, extremely well-meaning film. - 80
New York Daily News
Hungry for some grownup entertainment? Take Learning to Drive for a spin. - 67
The Playlist
It has warmth, it has flashes of insight, it even has moments of wit, all it really lacks is edge — which it lacks in large, whopping, huge amounts. - 63
New York Post
The movie putters along as softly as Wendy drives. Despite its lack of narrative horsepower, though, its character sketches are pleasing. And amusing. - 58
The A.V. Club
At least "Elegy" has some passion. Learning To Drive has harmless sweetness, many revealing speeches about life, and a Kingsley performance that shades strongly into a “Robin Williams as a straight-faced foreigner” routine. - 50
Variety
It’s no stretch for Kingsley to project stiff dignity and forthrightness, but that familiarity works against him here, despite his every effort to give the character a human pulse. Clarkson, expert at bringing authenticity to the most inauthentic material, gets to show far more range. - 40
The Hollywood Reporter
With its softball insights about midlife reinvention and its quasi-illuminating glances across the cultural and class divide, the movie takes its place, a la the similarly contrived The Visitor, on the spectrum of It’s Never Too Late character studies. - 40
Village Voice
The filmmakers' hearts might be in the right place, but the film's doesn't kick in until well after you might already have declared it dead.
