Driving Madeleine

“Charles” (Dany Boon) is a Parisian taxi driver at the end of his tether when he is given a job on the other side of the city. He can’t really be bothered but it’s a lucrative fare so he sets off to pick up “Mme. Keller” (Line Renaud). She’s 92 years of age and is reluctantly having to move into an old folks home. As they proceed to navigate the busy traffic their initially monosyllabic chat becomes more intensive, intimate and confidential as she reveals some fairly private and traumatic details of her life thus far whilst he reciprocates over a few coffees, a run in with the gendarmes, some ice cream and a lot of quite poignant conversation. Much of her backstory is played out for us thanks to Alice Isaaz as her younger self and Jérémie Laheurte as her husband/tormentor for whose aggression she has an eye-wateringly effective solution, and there is also a son “Mathieu” (Hadriel Roure/Thomas Alden) who has also been formative in seeing this old lady arrive at her current perspective on life. It’s really the engagingly crafted dialogue, set within the confines of their car, that keeps this appealing as both characters gel nicely amidst a nicely balanced mix of the serious and the more frivolous and though the actual conclusion steers perilously close to sentimentality for me, it’s still an enjoyable observation of age and attitudes that I did quite enjoy.