Driving Miss Daisy

Oh were you expecting a review for Marty? 

It was the one movie the video store didn't have ...soooo we improvised

 

Lindsey's Review

I saw “Driving Miss Daisy” years ago, but to be honest, all that I remember was her asking to go to the Piggly Wiggly and that pretty much sums it up. So, I was excited to revisit this movie that has been such a big hit with my family. Although I thought it was a little long…all in all it was a great movie.

The movie was filled with witty banter and sarcasm between Hoke (Morgan Freeman) and Miss Daisy (Jessica Tandy), and that always makes a movie good!   Actually she is kind of like that person you don’t really like when you first meet because they are rude but then you realize that’s just the way they are and it makes them much more tolerable, and eventually they end up growing on ya. In fact, one of my favorite parts was when Hoke tells Miss Daisy that he doesn’t know how to read…

Daisy: You know your letters don't you?
Hoke: Oh yeah, yeah I know my ABC's pretty good, just can't read.
Daisy: Stop saying that you're making me mad! If you know your letters you can read. You just don't know you can read.
Hoke: Ma’am?
Daisy: I taught some of the stupidest children God ever put on the face of this earth and all of them could read well enough to find a name on a tombstone.

I felt like I was watching my Mema on TV, she was Miss Daisy made over. Maybe that’s why I like the film so much? Ha.

Anyways… If you are looking for a funny, chill movie to watch with your family…this is a good’n. Or, if you don’t believe me that Dan Aykroyd was in an Academy Award winning film…this is proof.

Nikki's Review

For someone with such a sunny name, Miss Daisy is a grumpy pants.  But her sass is what allows the movie to be in the comedy section... and she is one classic sass mouth.  What's even better is the way Hoke, her driver (played by Morgan Freeman), puts her in her place and by doing so slowing breaks down her walls...whether or not she wants to admit it.  

The story as a whole is charming.  The scene at the end when Hoke visits Miss Daisy in the nursing home and feeds her her thanksgiving pie is heartwarming and touching, but I'm gonna be honest...it was hard to stay interested all the way up to that point. I also feel like the race/religion back-story was underplayed.  As a black driver chauffeuring a Jewish white lady around in the 50's and 60's, it slowly became evident they dealt with some of the same prejudices but it wasn't expanded upon.  Just one or two scenes and move on.  It seemed a little disjointed. 

The acting was on point though.  At first Morgan Freeman's character got on my nerves a little but something about him sinks in by the end and I realized how incredible he did in that role.  I'm not familiar with Jessica Tandy but she played her character with the perfect balance of hard assness (pretend its a word) and soft heart.  The best line was when she hoke was telling her he didn't know how to read and she said "stop telling me that, you'll make me mad"...maybe because it reminded me of Lindsey (jk Linds)

Well maybe that was the second best line, because I also loved when Miss Daisy's maid (Idella) muttered under her breath that Miss Daisy has the amount of sense that God gave a lemon.  Sass for a sass.  Maybe that's why Idella was one of the few people she put up with.

Again...overall good story, but a little slow.  And probably should have been in the drama section, not the comedy. But at least now I get the reference when Jack Black's character hums the score in The Holiday (props to Lindsey for pointing out why we've heard it before)

When Lindsey told me that Dead Poets Society was also nominated that year my thought was "well I'd much rather have watched that movie"