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‘Miss Daisy’ won’t let you out of viewer’s seatBy Jim EmersonThe Registerhe real story of “Driving Miss Daisy,” adapted by Alfred Uhry from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, is what happens between the scenes. Set in Atlanta between 1948 and 1973, the movie accompanies a wealthy 72-year-old Jewish widow, Daisy Werthan (Jessica Tandy), and her black driver, widowed sexagenarian Hoke Colburn (Morgan Freeman), on a journey across the waning years of their lives.The movie feels lived-in. And, as it unspools, you get to know Hoke and Miss Daisy gradually, over time — just as they get to know each other. But this isn’t a reel of selected highlights from their life stories. The Big Events, the Turning Points and the Dramatic Scenes tend to occur discreetly offscreen, if at all.Contemporary social changes (and the plays underlying themes of race relations and anti-Semitism) are hinted at but remain on the periphery, glimpsed only as they impinge upon Miss Daisy's constricted, isolated existence. Writer Uhry concentrates instead on the subtle give-and-take of these people’s everyday encounters. The film is a distillation of the kinds of less-than-climactic but indelible and treasur-able moments you might remember late in life without exactly knowing why.Directed by Bruce Beresford (whose “Tender Mercies” was also a film of quiet, understated epiphanies), “Driving Miss Daisy” is told in an elliptical, anecdotal style that, in its best moments, faintly recalls the films of Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu (“Tokyo Story,” Early Spring,” “Late Autumn”).Both pictures — and this is certainly Beresford’s best since “Tender Mercies” — evoke a kind of Westernized transcendental style that owes something of its spirit to Ozu.And so, even though you know where it’s going—that the initially testy, adversarial relationship between Miss Daisy and Hoke must eventually mellow into tolerance and friendship — the film arrives at its destination almost imperceptibly, with a cumulative emotional impact that’s unexpectedly moving — the way those little epiphanies often are when they sneak up on you from behind.But without actors as perceptive as Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy, who are capable of conveying so much with very little fuss, “Driving Miss Daisy” never would have gone anywhere.At the beginning, when Miss Daisy backs her 1948 Packard out of the garage and into the neighbor’s flower bed, her son Boolie (fine work by Dan Aykroyd) figures that, like it or not, the time has come to get her a driver. Miss Daisy is insulted — she’d rather walk or take the trolley. But Boolie hires Hoke anyway, explaining that his mother is, well, “high-strung. No matter what the cantankerous lady may say, Hoke works for Boolie and she can’t fire him.This conspiracy to take care of Miss Daisy (even if it is against her will) creates a bond of mutual appreciation between the two men, expressed marvelously in a scene where Hoke, through skillful indirection, asks for a raise. Both men soon know whereDan Aykroyd plays Boolie, the son of Southern matron Daisy Werthan.MOVIE REVIEWTHm film: “Driving Miss Daisy.”Starring: Morgan Freeman, Jessica Tandy, Dan Aykroyd, Patti Lupone, Esther Rolle.Battind the scenes: Directed by Bruce Beresford. Screenplay by Alfred Uhry, based on his play. Music by Hans Zimmer. Cinematography by Peter James.Playing: In theaters throughout Orange County. Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes.Rated: PG, language.the conversation is heading, and once that is acknowledged (with a faint smile, a sidelong glance), they sit back and take the time to savor the roundabout way it gets there. That’s the best way to appreciate the movie, too.At first, Hoke’s presence in her house just serves to remind Miss Daisy of her age and infirmities, so she resents having him around. Every time he tries to do something — dust a light fixture, work in the garden — she tells him to leave things as they are.Determined to live up to his gentleman’s agreement with Boolie, Hoke draws upon a lifetime’s worth of patience and discretion in dealing with white folks (as well as his own sly sense of humor) to slowly but persistently wear away Miss Daisy’s pride and stubborness, qualities he shares in equal measure.“Yassum, Miss Daisy,” he repeats again and again like a mantra — always respectful, never sarcastic or patronizing, but with a hint of wryness and a gleam in his eye. He’s going to keep trying to do his job until she can no longer object. Through his persistence and inviolable dignity, Hoke gradually wins the upper hand with Miss Daisy, but it’s an advantage he never flaunts.Hoke and Miss Daisy, in the later scenes, may bicker habitually like an old married couple, but the line that separates white employer and black employee is never quite overstepped. And yet, between the two of them, it eventually wears so thin as to become indistinct, even irrelevant.Both lifelong outsiders in Atlanta because of his race and her religion, Hoke and Miss Daisy do form a couple, of sorts. And, as with all couples, the fundamental pat*Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman are driver and passenger only — until their surface-cool relationship warms and they find out why they have mutual respect for each other.terns on which they have based their relationship will endure, more or less unaltered, until the end of their days.This material seems ripe for Hallmark-card sentimentalization, but the actors refuse to admit such mawkish, manipulative obviousness into their work. With Tandy and Freeman, less is always more, and their performances are models of restraint and keen observation.Beresford almost betrays them early on, though, by mucking up the edges of his lens with needless smudges of Vaseline that attempt to bathe the past in a hazy glow of phony nostalgia. Thankfully, the picture becomes more clear-sighted as it progresses. (Hans Zimmer’s synthetic music, however, slathers on the sweetness a bit thick.)The stage setting for4‘Driving Miss Daisy” was minimal, with two simple chairs to represent Miss Daisy’s car. And the movie has a similar pared-down, essentialized quality—in the performances, the writing, die settings and the way it has been effortlessly “opened-up” for the screen.Boolie’s wife Florine (Patti Lupone) and Miss Daisy’s cook Idella (Esther Rolle), who were only referred to in the play, havebeen added to the film’s cast without straining or diluting the simple narrative.The 80-year-old Tandy ages from 72 to 95 in the film, and she eliminates the self-conscious gimmickry or self-pity that a younger, less precise actress might have brought to Miss Daisy. Tandy’s lady is brittle but also fragile; occasionally harsh but never spiteful.The movie’s triumph, though, is Freeman’s Hoke. It’s become a cliche to talk about actors who “never condescend” to their roles, but Freeman is such a solid, centered, commanding presence that he inhabits Hoke without hedging or apologizing for surface traits that might have seemed clownish or even Uncle Tom-ish if interpreted by a less intelligent and insightful actor.Freeman (who originated the role on stage) eliminates any “modern” distance between himself and his character, allow? ing us to see Hoke for who he is, not some anachronistic fantasy figure we might have wished him to be. Freeman’s Hoke knows exactly who he is, recognizes the reality of the time and place in which he lives, and understands that no apologies are warranted.
Newspaper Details
Santa Ana Orange County Register
Santa Ana, California, US
Thu, Dec 21, 1989
Page 121
Full Page
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USA 19 Jul 2022
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