Page 10- The Michigan Daily -Wednesday, January 17, 1990
Driven to understanding
Driving Miss Daisyj
dir. Bruce Beresford
BY MARK BINELLI
The problem with Driving Miss
Daisy, the film adaptation of Alfred
Uhry's Pulitzer Prize-winning play,
is that beneath its excellent acting,
directing, and scenery lies a disap-
pointingly average story.
Morgan Freeman (Clean and
Sober) stars as Hoke, the character
he created and won a best actor Obie
for on stage. Hoke is an elderly
Black chauffer who is hired as a
driver for a wealthy Jewish widow,
Miss Daisy, played by Jessica
Tandy. Co-star Dan Aykroyd does a
decent job (although his part mainly
codsists of nodding a lot and saying,
"Yes, Mama") as Boolie, Miss
Daisy's concerned son, who hires
Hoke after his mother crashes the car
whilebacking out of her driveway.
At first, the stubborn Miss Daisy
hafes Hoke's presence. She is deter-
mided not to be a burden on her son
,nfi refuses to admit that she needs
sormeone to drive her around. But
eventually Hoke's earnestness and
down-to-earth charm win her over
("Only took me six days - same
time it took the Lord to make the
world," he tells Boolie). The film
documents their developing friend-
ship over the period from 1948 to
1973.
Bruce Beresford's (Crimes of the
Heart) laid-back directing as well as
the extremely authentic setting cap-
ture the feel of the postwar South,
and Freeman and Tandy both do fan-
Freeman and Tandy
both do fantastic jobs
in transforming
relatively two-
dimensional
characters (the
amiable-but-proud
Black man and the
crochety-but-kind
white woman) into
real, likeable people
that we can really
care about. But
nothing can really
change the fact that
Driving Miss Daisy is
basically an odd-
couple buddy movie...
tastic jobs in transforming relativey
two-dimensional characters (the ami-
able-but-proud Black man and the
crochety-but-kind white woman) into
real, likeable people that we can re-
ally care about. But nothing can re-
ally change the fact that Driving
Miss Daisy is basically an odd-coa-
ple buddy movie, maybe with a bit
more substance than, say, Tango and
Cash, but still not very impressive.
At best, the plot is comfortably
predictable. Miss Daisy is ready to
fire Hoke after finding one of her
33# cans of salmon missing but,
sure enough, Hoke shows up at
work the next morning with another
can and an apology for stealing a
snack when he was hungry. When
Miss Daisy's synagogue is bombed,
Hoke is there to help her deal with
the discriminatory act. When Hoke
confesses that he is illiterate, Miss
Daisy, a former schoolteacher, is
there to help him learn to read.
Thus their relationship develops
in a somewhat shallow manner.
Sometimes the simplicity of the
story is good, as in the case of
Hoke's understated happiness at leav-
ing Georgia for the first time while
driving Miss Daisy to a party. At
other times, however, it can be an-
noying, such as in the film's han-
dling of racism. Throughout the film
Miss Daisy insists that she is not
prejudiced, but she refers to Blacks
as "they" or "them." The climax of
the film seems to come when she
goes to hear Martin Luther King Jr.
speak and Hoke must listen outside
in the car. She obviously feels bad
for not inviting him in, especially
when King speaks of "the fear and
apathy of the children of light." But
we never see her act on how she
feels. Perhaps if the story had dealt
with a shorter time period, the
strange friendship between two peo-
ple who were not supposed to be
friends could have been one of sub-
stance. Instead, it is just a nice
story, and not much more.
DRIVING MISS DAISY is playing at
Showcase.
0
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TAKE A STATION BREAK.
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Miss Daisy (Jessica Tandy) waits in her car as her chauffeur Hoke,
driver's seat. Freeman also appears in Glory (see p. 8).
(Morgan Freeman) takes a break from the
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