Learning to Drive
Broad Green Pictures | Release Date: August 21, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
10
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaSep 10, 2015
A story of companionship, loneliness, resilience. It's a small, artfully crafted thing, but it resonates in big ways. Read full review
88
ObserverRex ReedAug 20, 2015
The keenly observed patterns of behavior and the witty, intimate dialogue pay off. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesMichael RechtshaffenAug 20, 2015
Learning to Drive is a richly observed, crosscultural character study that coasts along pleasurably on the strengths of its virtuoso leads. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen HoldenAug 20, 2015
As this movie, directed by Isabel Coixet, tracks the deepening friendship between people from different cultures and backgrounds, it acquires an unforced metaphorical resonance. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsStephen WhittyAug 19, 2015
Hungry for some grownup entertainment? Take Learning to Drive for a spin. Read full review
80
The GuardianJordan HoffmanAug 18, 2015
[A] touching, insightful and, at the end of the day, extremely well-meaning film. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerSep 3, 2015
[A] soulful, fluently told, low-key comedy. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonAug 21, 2015
This is the rare film written, directed and edited by women. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesSep 2, 2015
By the end, I was moved. Not floored, but moved. Read full review
67
The PlaylistJessica KiangAug 18, 2015
It has warmth, it has flashes of insight, it even has moments of wit, all it really lacks is edge — which it lacks in large, whopping, huge amounts. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 27, 2015
I wish Learning to Drive imagined a fuller, more dimensional inner life for Wendy, but Clarkson develops a push-pull rapport with Kingsley that fills in the blanks — or, rather, mitigates the script's on-the-nose tendencies. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 27, 2015
Kingsley is entirely too stiff and proper in this part to suggest any heat between them, and even if that serves the script, the film cries out for more warmth. It’s a chilly piece, scattered funny situations and laugh-out-loud lines, and a good cast performing them. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithAug 20, 2015
The movie putters along as softly as Wendy drives. Despite its lack of narrative horsepower, though, its character sketches are pleasing. And amusing. Read full review
60
Total FilmMatt LookerJun 9, 2016
Kingsley essays both authenticity and humour, but it’s often hard to know what’s steering the story. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottSep 11, 2015
Once Learning to Drive gets up to speed it hums along nicely. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghAug 27, 2015
What spares Learning to Drive is an awful lot of comedic talent and artistic good will. Clarkson and Kingsley imbue average material with easy charm and wit, clicking onscreen with the smooth platonic chemistry of old friends. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonAug 19, 2015
At least "Elegy" has some passion. Learning To Drive has harmless sweetness, many revealing speeches about life, and a Kingsley performance that shades strongly into a “Robin Williams as a straight-faced foreigner” routine. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 3, 2015
Learning to Drive would be an entirely inert expedition were it not for Clarkson, who plays against Kingsley’s sentinel of propriety with her signature radiance and birdlike gracefulness. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoAug 26, 2015
Offers some hit-and-miss pleasures, but may finally strike you as pedestrian. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin ChangAug 18, 2015
It’s no stretch for Kingsley to project stiff dignity and forthrightness, but that familiarity works against him here, despite his every effort to give the character a human pulse. Clarkson, expert at bringing authenticity to the most inauthentic material, gets to show far more range. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 20, 2015
Goes by pleasantly enough as you come to understand where it’s headed, but this romantic comedy, directed by Isabel Coixet from a screenplay by Sarah Kernochan, wears out its welcome, and energy, through unswerving conformity to its dramatic scheme. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlAug 18, 2015
The filmmakers' hearts might be in the right place, but the film's doesn't kick in until well after you might already have declared it dead. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenAug 18, 2015
With its softball insights about midlife reinvention and its quasi-illuminating glances across the cultural and class divide, the movie takes its place, a la the similarly contrived The Visitor, on the spectrum of It’s Never Too Late character studies. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineClayton DillardAug 18, 2015
Instead of using the titular metaphor as a means to seek deeper, darker ends, Isabel Coixet proceeds to restate it over and over again. Read full review
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