Driving Miss Daisy: Critic Reviews

There is an exhilarating, singularly theatrical lightness of touch that is often lost when these settings are made manifest in a movie.

The movie gets you mainly because Morgan Freeman, who played chauffeur Hoke Colburn in the original stage production (and won his third Obie for it), takes the wheel and drives Daisy all the way home.

The story holds a potential for sap that is mostly unfulfilled thanks to Beresford's stately approach, the stars' better judgment and the protagonists' sharp wits.

Driving Miss Daisy is a film of great love and patience, telling a story that takes 25 years to unfold, exploring its characters as few films take the time to do.

The movie also has something legitimate and instructive to say about the subtlety and intricacy of everyday race relations in the south during the period covered (roughly 1948 to '73).

Bruce Beresford's sensitive direction complements Alfred Uhry's skillful adapation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning play.

Alfred Uhry's adaptation of his Pulitzer-prizewinning play aspires more to complex observation of human behavior than to simple moralism about it. Precisely because it has its priorities straight, it succeeds superbly on both levels.

This is Tandy's finest two hours onscreen in a film career that goes back to 1932.

An exquisitely acted slice of cinematic comfort food, Driving Miss Daisy marked the coda of one great acting career and the rise of another.

Touching tale of an unlikely friendship.

It's a bland but decent film that I liked without loving it.

It gets to its hugely emotional destination without ever having to put the foot down; a poignant and provocative road movie.

Ultimately this is an intelligent feel-good movie that had Oscar material stamped all over the screenplay, but lacks the bite or insight that could have turned it into something truly special.

Chief among the film's rewards are the extraordinary performances of its trio of stars, Freeman, Tandy, and Aykroyd.

Tandy and Freeman are terrific in this beautiful film about the commonalities between people who seem so different.

Far too cosy to serve as an effective social or political metaphor; better to regard it as a solid ensemble piece.

The modest storytelling and likable performances must have impressed the Oscar voters as the movie won the Best Picture Oscar and Best Actress for Jessica Tandy, thus establishing her as screen star at old age.

Morgan Freeman elevates the source material as always.

One of Oscar's Biggest Jokes

One of today's best movies

A toothless message movie, timidly espousing homogenized morals and terrified of offending anyone.

Strikes the right chords in both drama and comedy, but given the setting and subject matter, doesn't really have anything important or original to say.