Review of Driving Miss Daisy (2015) by Tony's F — 20 Jul 2011

Driving Miss Daisy is a simple heartwarming film, that is among the best films that I have seen. What you have here is a drama, comedy that is about trust, survival, loss and a great friendship. The film is directed by (Bruce Beresford), and it was the winner of four Academy awards in 1990, including best picture.

The movie is about a independent old widow called, Miss Daisy, who is played by old school Actress (Jessica Tandy: Cocoon, The Birds). The film is set in the year 1948, in the hot and humid deep South of America, where Miss Daisy lives in this big old house by herself, with an African American widow, but they rarely talk, only a good-morning and a good-bye. Miss Daisy normally will rely on her son Boolie, to take care of her and take her shopping and where ever else she needs to go, but, one morning her Son is running late, so than Miss Daisy decides she will drive herself shopping, and take her "new" car out that she has never driven before. Tho as she puts her foot down on the gas, she reverses her car straight into the neighbour's backyard and rolls the car down into a bush.

Miss Daisy's son Boolie is starting to get very busy at work, so that means he wont be able to help his mother out as much as he used to. He decides to hire a chauffeur for his mother, that will take her places and help her out with anything that she needs. Boolie, finds a nice old African American man, around in his 50's called Hoke, played by the great (Morgan Freeman). When we first meet Hoke, he looks like a caring man that loves to help people. Theres a scene when Boolie is trying to help a young man down from a broken elevator, and thats when Hoke comes along and helps the young man to get down, and he succeedes. Boolie likes what he saw, so with a few words spoken he asks Hoke if he would like the job, and without hesitating Hoke says yes, with a huge smile on his face, and his lips that starting twitching. Hoke, throughout the entire film, smiles, talks fast and does this little twitch with his lips. It is hilarious to watch.

This movie is full of alot of great humour, great diolouge and everything is done very well, and the pacing is slow but perfect for this type of film. It takes a few weeks for Miss Daisy and Hoke to actually have a real converstaion, and it is also takes a while for her to actually hop in the car with him. Hoke, will also try to help around the house by cleaning whatever he can, and doing the gardening just in hope that Miss Daisy will finally realise that he is there to work and not for anything else, a.k.a stealing. There is a scene where Miss Daisy realises that she is missing a can of fruit, so she goes out of her head and wants to confront Hoke, but it all ends with a smile on her face because Hoke brings a can of fruit the next day to replace it. Miss Daisy finally trusts Hoke after that, and that is when their friendship starts.

The performances from (Morgan Freeman) and (Jessica Tandy) is the most powerful thing about the movie. Like I said it takes a while for the two main leads to actually have a conversation, so some people that are new to films and think "Christopher Nolan" is the best director of all time may think that this is all boring. Tho, what is really good about the quite moments in the film is how how the characters develop. The gestures on their face, the way they move and their eyes show us how they are feeling, happy or sad. So really we have a charcater study film, and im sure all film buffs love movies like this.

The movie runs for nearly two hours, and within that two hours we have seen 25 years of friendship. We get to see how the relationship started, how it kept changing and how it all ended. The chemistry between the two leads starts off very rocky but than turns into a best-friend and only friend scenario, and it is amazing to watch these people grow and to watch the things that they go through year by year, including death. I think since we are in a world of CGI and stupid superhero films that contain blue flying monsters and guys with big muscles, and after reading 150,000 harry Potter reviews. How about, you sit back and watch a good feeling movie with great performances?

Btw, Ned Beatty is not in this film, Grouchy.