Driving Miss Daisy, directed by Bruce Beresford, is the kind of movie that sneaks up on you. There are no explosions, grand adventures, or dramatic twists to keep the audience on the edge of its seat. Instead, the movie spends most of its time watching two people slowly get to know each other, and somehow that becomes just as compelling. It’s also worth remembering that this quiet, character-driven movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Buy Driving Miss DaisyJessica Tandy plays Daisy Werthan, an elderly Jewish woman living in Atlanta who is determined to remain independent, even when her son Boolie (Dan Aykroyd) decides she needs a chauffeur. Daisy initially refuses to accept Hoke Colburn (Morgan Freeman) and treats his presence as another sign that she is losing control of her life. Hoke, meanwhile, is remarkably patient. He understands Daisy better than she realizes, and Freeman gives the character a quiet dignity that makes it impossible not to root for him.
The relationship between Daisy and Hoke is the heart of the movie. Their conversations are often funny, but there is always something more happening beneath the surface. Daisy is stubborn, proud, and sometimes downright difficult, while Hoke possesses a warmth and good humor that gradually wear down her defenses. Neither character undergoes some enormous transformation. Instead, their attitudes shift little by little, almost imperceptibly, as years pass.
That passage of time is one of the movie’s strengths. We watch Daisy and Hoke move from employer and employee to something much closer to friends. Their changing relationship also allows the movie to explore race and prejudice in the American South without turning every scene into a lecture. Hoke encounters racism simply because he is Black, while Daisy’s own experiences as a Jewish woman give her a complicated relationship with prejudice. The movie doesn’t pretend those experiences are identical, but it does show how empathy can grow between people whose lives are very different.
Tandy is wonderful, and her performance earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress. Freeman is equally good, giving Hoke an understated presence that never demands attention. Dan Aykroyd also deserves credit for finding the right balance between humor and genuine affection for his mother.
The movie does have a gentle, almost old-fashioned quality that may not appeal to everyone. Its pace is deliberately slow, and much of the drama comes from small emotional shifts rather than major events. But that patience is also what makes the movie work. By the time Daisy finally recognizes how important Hoke has become to her, the moment carries considerable weight because the movie has taken the time to earn it.
Driving Miss Daisy is ultimately a movie about friendship, aging, pride, and learning to see another person more clearly. It doesn’t need to shout to make its point. Sometimes a movie can simply put two interesting people in a car together and let the miles do the storytelling.
