Line Renaud Leads French Two-Hander

Filmmakers love to romanticize long drives as canvases for introspection, but cab drivers and their passengers are rarely portrayed in such a poetic light. At best, you get glaringly saccharine takes on race and class relations in films like “Driving Miss Daisy” and “Green Book.” At worst, you get Travis Bickle.

So when gruff French cabbie Charles (Dany Boon) hits the streets of Paris each morning, it’s fair to say that he’s not expecting to complete an entire road trip movie before he clocks out. When he pulls up to Madeleine Keller’s (Line Renaud) suburban alcove to drive her to her new nursing home, he’s just trying to help another paying customer run another errand before getting on with his life. What he fails to consider is that, for a 92-year-old, a simple drive across town can turn into an emotional odyssey filled with enough peaks and valleys to leave Wim Wenders emotionally drained.

Madeleine has reluctantly agreed to check into a care facility, but she’s in no particular hurry to get there. She asks Charles to take the scenic route, and they spend the day weaving through Paris as she recalls her youth and points out the landmarks that shaped her life story. She recalls her best kisses and her young loves before eventually opening up about the abusive marriage that led to her darkest chapters. Remarkably, she lacks bitterness about either her past or her present state and appears content to reflect on an eventful life.

We can…