Driven: Film Review

I knew about the DeLorean car thanks to Back to the Future but knew nothing about its creator John DeLorean and the dodgy dealings he got caught up in so the premise of Driven was appealing to me.

The film follows Jim Hoffman (Jason Sudeikis), a drug smuggler-turned-FBI informant living in California in the 1970s. After being caught with a plane-load of cocaine, he has to gather evidence to convict his boss Morgan (Michael Cudlitz) on behalf of the FBI. During this time, he lives next door to and becomes friends with car designer John DeLorean (Lee Pace). When DeLorean’s company has a cash flow problem, Hoffman sees an opportunity to lure the businessman into a drug deal.

Driven is engaging and enjoyable but I didn’t feel like I came away really knowing much about DeLorean or what went down with the deal. It was confusing and I ended up going onto the Internet to get a clearer picture. This doesn’t have as much depth and substance as I was hoping for but the performances were great and it looked awesome.

Sudeikis did a fine job as the doofus who keeps getting into trouble and Judy Greer provided top support as his wife Ellen. Pace certainly looked the part of DeLorean and was very charming and cool but could cut anyone down with a steely look. Not a man to be messed with. Corey Stoll didn’t get much opportunity to flex his acting muscles as the FBI agent in charge of Hoffman but he did rock some sweet undercover outfits.

Driven was an easy, perfectly enjoyable watch with some excellent performances. It’s very much a case of style over substance so don’t expect to come away with much more knowledge than you began with.

In selected cinemas and digital download now