Driving Miss Daisy

Miss Daisy is the wealthy 72-year-old widow of a Jewish textile manufacturer. When she crashes her brand-new 1948 Packard into the neighbour's azaleas and the insurance company cancels her policy, her son Boolie hires Hoke, a steadfast widower in his early sixties, to carry the reluctant Miss Daisy to temple, the library and weekly mah-jongg games. Stubborn as a small-eyed needle and independent as the Statue of Liberty, Miss Daisy must be cajoled, shamed and finally tricked into backseat driving. When the amiable, barn-broad Boolie warns Hoke about his mother's contrary nature, the chauffeur assures him he's up to the job. And so begins a friendship with Daisy that flourishes, like the back-yard garden they one day work together, during the next 25 turbulent years. (The Washington Post, 1999)