Review: Driving Miss Daisy

I've crossed one more Best Picture movie off of my 2011 To Do List.... the 1989 winner Driving Miss Daisy starring Morgan Freeman, Jessica Tandy & Dan Aykroyd.

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The movie begins in Georgia in the 1950s and focuses on an old Jewish woman and her relationship with her black chauffeur, following it over a 25 year period and showing how a close friendship grew out of an unlikely situation.  Here's the trailer to give you a frame of reference:

The film begins in 1948 and ends in 1973. Over that 25 years the film depicts significant events throughout Miss Daisy's life:

• Her car crash in 1948 (age 75) when she is deemed unable to drive and a chauffeur is forced upon her.
• A road trip to Mobile, Alabama, when the chauffeur Hoke is harassed by two white Alabaman police men, which shows the relevant racial tension of the (then) 1950s.
• The bombing of the Jewish temple in Atlanta, GA, in 1958... which shows that not only is Hoke under racial prejudice, but so is Miss Daisy, since she is a Jew.
• Miss Daisy attending a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1960s and creating a rift between her and Hoke when she didn't invite him to the dinner, even though she had an extra ticket.

The film's ends after Miss Daisy is deemed unable to live alone and is put in a nursing home. The final scene shows Hoke (then 85) feeding Miss Daisy (then 97) Thanksgiving pie. It was at this final scene in the movie that I cried. Because never before had a friendship of that depth been shown to me as beautifully as it was in this movie. The sincere helplessness of both main characters by the end of the film resonated with me so deeply, I was mesmerized by it. 

The film was nominate for 9 Academy Awards, and won four of them for Best Picture, Best Actress (Jessica Tandy), Best Makeup and Best Adapted Screenplay.

A few fun fact about the movie {via Wikipedia}...

• Only film based on an off Broadway production ever to win an Academy Award for Best Picture
• Last Best Picture winner to date to receive a PG rating
• Last film to date (and one of only three films ever) to win Best Picture without having received a Best Director nomination
• Jessica Tandy, at age 80, became both the oldest winner and the oldest nominee ever in the history of the Best Actress category

I really enjoyed the movie. One more thing I will say about it: how is it that Morgan Freeman looks exactly as old today in 2011 as he did in 1989? It's like the man aged to 70 then stopped aging! It's really funny to watch.

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My grade: B.


It didn't make enough of a connection with me to want to watch it again. It was a sweet, endearing movie of great friendship... but it wasn't enough of my kind of movie to make a life-long fan out of me. I'd definitely suggest watching it at least once, though. It's a great way to spend 2 hours and it's on Netflix instant-watch so you really don't have an excuse ♥