There’s a fine line between conman and rube. I’ve seen them both from Jason Sudeikis on the very same day playing what appears to be the same guy – you can tell by the cheesy moustache. In Driven, Sudeikis is a classic Shakespearean “smiling, damned villain,” the guy who will make your drug run happen, take a slice of the action, and –when caught- pretend he’s just an innocent in over his head. Meanwhile, on Apple TV, Sudeikis is an eternal optimist and genuine rube as soccer coach “Ted Lasso.” And, I swear to you, the reactions of both these men would be identical in 99% of scenarios.
Hmmm, is Ted Lasso secretly a grifter? I’ll have to ponder that one a while.
So, have you ever wondered about that cool car from Back to the Future? It’s called a DeLorean, and few people outside Marty McFly have ever seen one, let alone Driven one of these hunks of crap. I get the distinct impression from Driven (a John DeLorean biopic) that we should be overjoyed Marty had as little car trouble as he had. For all its “cool,” the average DeLorean seems about as likely to race out of the driveway as a box turtle. But this is irrelevant; there was little-to-no actual driving in the curiously titled Driven. Perhaps the title was meant to imply the alternate definition of “goal oriented” as pertaining to the subject of the film: a would-be stoolie motivated entirely by avoiding prison.
I wouldn’t call Jim Hoffman (Sudeikis) a “loser,” per se; for instance, he seems to have collected a decent wife, child, and home. Who knows if there were legal actions that got him to that place. The film opens with Hoffman being prepared as a witness testifying against legendary auto maker John DeLorean. Driven then immediately takes us back to the key moments preceding this climax: the part where Hoffman gets busted by the FBI while smuggling coke from Bolivia, and his meetcute with DeLorean (Lee Pace). Awwww. See two men bond over sports cars. Awwww. It’s a little more impressive when you realize DeLorean designed the car in question.
Pace plays DeLorean as the kind of intense businessman who doesn’t suffer fools gladly, which really makes you wonder how he ended up with Hoffman, the very definition of “fool.” The FBI had agreed to let Hoffman go on about his life
on condition that he set-up a drug kingpin or two. Hey, by golly, what if instead of Scarface, I bring you John DeLorean … how does that sound? I think you can see where this one is going; I will point out, however, a fun set of scenes where the drug kingpin, Morgan (Michael Cudlitz), is introduced to the lifestyle of John DeLorean and when invited to “mike himself at home” wastes no time in pretending those words mean exactly that.
Driven is one of those films that doesn’t really have a good guy. DeLorean is a self-absorbed mini-megalomaniac (regulomaniac?), Hoffman is a fool, Morgan is a criminal, Special Agent Benedict (Corey Stall) is a tool, and the women in the film range from shrew to arm-candy. This all means that the story has to work on its own, which tends to be difficult for biopics. The truth may indeed be stranger than fiction, but rarely is there a cinematic payoff to that effect. I suppose it’s worth the telling about how John DeLorean went from Enzo Ferrari to dope peddler, but you’re not likely to stand and cheer during a single moment in the two hours. I have no idea how close this film was to reality, but my lone takeaway from Driven is how thankful I am not to be either Scarface or his neighbor.
DeLorean was a designer of contrast
He constructed a legend to last
I don’t want to be sour
But eighty-eight miles per hour?
Only if you can push it that fast
Rated R, 113 Minutes
Director: Nick Hamm
Writer: Colin Bateman, Alejandro Carpio
Genre: Raceless racing
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Ex-neighbors of John DeLorean
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The FBI
