Driving Miss Doozey is probably whizzing in the mind of Parisian cabbie, Charles when he accepts a fare from nonagenarian, Madeleine.
From the get go, Charles’ reluctance is palpable but he needs the do-re-me as primary breadwinner for his darling wife and daughter.
The early morning booking looks like a real earner, but he begins to regret his decision when a cantankerous old woman, Madeleine, played by French screen legend, Line Renaud, is waiting begrudgingly and belligerently at the pickup point.
At the age of 92, she is bowing to the pressure of doctors and her own failing and fragile body, forced to face her impending finiteness in an assisted living facility.
But with a full day at her disposal, Madeleine intends to drag it out for as long as possible, indulging in her final hours of freedom. As the journey unfolds, so does the story of Madeleine’s long and eventful life monumentally affected by two historical conflicts – World War II and the Vietnam War.
A story of warmth and empathy growing from a base of cold and enmity, DRIVING MADELEINE may provoke a prosecution of predictability, but the two leads quash any qualms and we are delivered a sweet and beguiling bon bon.
The chemistry between Dany Boon’s Charles and Line Renaud’s Madeleine is a cinematic alchemy beautifully captured by director Christian Carion, playing with an original screenplay by Cyril Gely.
And the flashback sequences are equally impressive, fleshing out the extraordinary back story of the vivacious Madeleine, with Alice Isaaz playing the young Mado with a joie de vivre even in the face of great adversity and tumultuous tragedy.
Replete with a soundtrack featuring songs from Etta James and Dinah Washington, DRIVING MADELEINE is a bona fide charmer, a solid lesson in karma and clarion call for Carpe Diem.
