Director: Nick Hamm
Writer: Colin Bateman, Alejandro Carpio (Screenplay)
Starring: Jason Sudeikis, Lee Pace, Judy Greer, Isabel Arraiza, Michael Cudlitz, Erin Moriarty
Plot: Intense thriller where politics, big business and narcotics collide.
Tagline – How a Lemon Became a Legend
Runtime: 1 Hour 53 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Driven starts when Jim Hoffman (Sudeikis) gets caught by the FBI carrying drugs into the country, he gets pushed into a deal of getting close and catching the drug lord he works for Morgan Hetrick (Cudlitz). Jim learns his new neighbor is John DeLorean (Pace) who is trying to make his own car the famous DeLorean we all know from Back to the Future.
As Jim gets close to John, he finds himself in the middle of the failure of the new car launch, turning to Jim to help him turn into the drug business connecting to Morgan to bring the both of them down.
Thoughts on Driven
Characters & Performances – Jim Hoffman is a drug trafficker using his family to cover up his flights in and out of America, until he gets caught. Jim is forced into becoming an informant for the FBI, getting information on his connection. He ends up making friends with John DeLorean and caught up in helping the infamous car being produced and covering the failures. Jason Sudeikis does well in this role, bringing his level of comedy into the film. John DeLorean is the car designer that has worked in most of the major companies in America, but he dreams of making his own car, one that is different, he is confident it will be a success and struggles with the fact the car struggles to make the impact it could have in the world. Lee Pace does bring us a character based on the real figure that does feel like he does believes, he is above everyone else. We get to meet both the men’s wives who enjoy the life of luxury they are in, without being involved in the criminal side of things. The FBI agents pushing the buttons to make thing happen and the drug dealer who brings the case together.
Story – The story here follows a reluctant FBI informant that becomes friends with John DeLorean, leading him to get caught up in the middle of the rise and fall, as well as connection to a bigger drug deal between the designer and the man he is trying to catch. This is a film based on the real events that will show us just how friendship between two strangers would have been tested to make sure the world went smoother and how one of the biggest cases in drug investigation could start to spiral out of control. This isn’t anything we haven’t seen before though, leading us down the path you would expect from start to finish.
Themes – Driven is a biopic pick based on the friendship before a big drugs bust case involving one of the most ambitious car designers, we get to see how the car designer tried and failed to bring the world something different. We get a sprinkling of comedy from the connection Jim brings to everyone and we keep the era style settings in place well through the film.
Driven is a by the book biopic that doesn’t offer much new, but can be enjoyed for what we learn.