Driving Lessons Through Life

By JBFC Marketing Intern Stacy Zakalik

Learning To Drive, directed by Isabel Coixet (Elegy), arrives at the Burns on Friday, October 2. The movie follows Wendy (Patricia Clarkson) and Darwan (Ben Kingsley), two very different New York City residents whose stories overlap in a very significant way.

Wendy is a rich Manhattanite book critic who owns a beautiful apartment on the Upper West Side with her husband of 21 years (Jake Weber), until, that is, he cheats on her with a much younger woman and leaves. Darwan, an Indian Sikh immigrant, is the taxi driver who finds all this out by accident (or fate). As he deals with his own impending arranged marriage, he helps Wendy as she tries to navigate her new life.

One thing that Wendy has never learned to do is drive. Darwan, a driving instructor by day and a taxi driver by night, takes it upon himself to teach her. Wendy is desperate to visit her grown daughter Tasha (Grace Gummer) in Vermont, a trip that’s not easily made unless one has a car and knows how to drive. As Darwan teaches Wendy how to drive, and thus be independent once more, the unlikely pair strikes up a close bond and learns the value of life, love, and relationships.

The film is a beautiful look into two very different people, who find each other at the perfect time as together they learn how to start over.

Learning to Drive opens at the Burns on Friday, October 2. Tickets are on sale now.