January 21, 2016 -- This is a nice little romantic comedy about divorce, an arranged marriage, illegal aliens, adjusting to new cultures and adapting to changes in life.

Patricia Clarkson (“Friends With Benefits”) stars as Wendy, a New York film critic who is going through a divorce. She wants to visit her daughter, Tasha (Grace Gummer of “Margin Call”) who is living in a rural area of another state. Public transportation being what it is, she decides she needs to learn to drive and to buy a car.

By chance, Wendy meets a Sikh cab driver, Darwan (Ben Kingsley of “Exodus: Gods and Kings”) who is also a driving instructor, and arranges for lessons. Overwhelmed by the divorce, and the need to move from her home to an apartment, she decides not to take the lesson, but Darwan persuades her to give it a try, and she gradually begins to learn to drive.

Wendy is a very nervous person, quick to anger, quick to panic, and she has a very active mind. She is easily distracted and her mind tends to wander from the task at hand. Darwan is a very patient and calm man who very gently corrects her mistakes. Over the course of their lessons, they become good friends.

Darwan is a well-educated man from India who was unfairly treated by the government and imprisoned unjustly because of his brother's activities. As part of the oppressed Sikh minority in India, he came to the U.S. and received political asylum and gained U.S. citizenship. His relatives in India arrange a marriage for him to a Sikh woman in India he has never met. His marriage takes place while he is still involved with teaching Wendy to drive.

Wendy gets into an accident while driving in the training car and Darwan, for once, looses his cool because he will have to pay the insurance deductible out of his own pocket. He takes over the wheel and he and Wendy head to the airport to pick up Jasleen (Sarita Choudhury) the woman he is to marry. Jasleen immediately becomes jealous of Wendy.

Darwan's home is raided by the INS and some of the illegals living there are arrested. Darwan is also harassed by people who think he is a Muslim. Jasleen has a hard time adjusting to life in New York City after living in a small town in rural India. There is a very nice scene in which she is made to feel welcome by a group of other immigrant women from India.

Wendy is having an unusually difficult time learning to drive. Part of the reason for this is her need to adjust to her new situation in life. Darwan's wise advice helps her, and Wendy helps Darwan to make his wife's transition to life in New York easier. Theirs is a very nice friendship, but it can only go so far without serious consequences.

Clarkson and Kingsley are both great actors, and they both are in top form in this film. Actresses of Clarkson's age (56) don't get many leading roles in American movies, and she makes the most of this one. Kingsley, 72, is playing a much younger character, but he pulls it off nicely. Kingsley, famously, won an Best Actor Academy Award in 1983 for playing the iconic Indian leader, Ganhdi, in a 1982 film of the same name.

This isn't just a good film because of the great acting, however, it has a solid romantic story and it touches on some important social issues as well. Sikhism is the fifth largest religion in the world, but it is almost never depicted in American movies. It is given significant screen time in this one. Sikhism's central teachings of unity, equality of all people, selfless service and social justice are much like the teachings of Jesus and St. Francis. This film rates a B.

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Copyright © 2016 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
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