‘Driving Miss Daisy’ By Desson Howe Washington Post Staff Writer January 12, 1990

Director: Bruce Beresford Cast: Morgan Freeman; Jessica Tandy; Dan Aykroyd; Patti LuPone; Esther Rolle Parental guidance suggested Oscars: Picture; Best Actress; Adapted Screenplay; Makeup Compare prices for this movie Find local video stores More movie shopping Save money with NextCard Visa

Wait. There's even more to push your negative preconceptions into overdrive: In a cast that features two major Jewish characters, and touches on themes of racial tolerance, there isn't a Jewish actor in sight, at least among the principals, and this chauffeur role seems to be another Old-Jeb-tips-his-cap job listing for black actors.

Further, the Jewish matriarch is played by Jessica Tandy, she of the cringe-inducing (not to mention gentile) Feisty Old Lady appearances in "Cocoon: The Return," "*batteries not included," and that real-life senior-citizen horror show, the Kennedy Center Honors, while the serious (and other Jewish) role of Tandy's son is taken by Dan "Watch my Nixon" Aykroyd.

But wait again. "Daisy" reaches you in all the places it intends to, in part, because Alfred Uhry adapts his, yes, Broadway hit with intelligent restraint, and also because Tandy and Aykroyd make their significant marks. But the movie gets you mainly because Morgan Freeman, who played chauffeur Hoke Colburn in the original stage production (and won his third Obie for it), takes the wheel and drives "Daisy" all the way home.

Freeman has taken whatever black parts Hollywood has thrown his way and transformed them. In Jerry Schatzberg's 1987 "Street Smart," his off-lead performance as the woman-beating, murderous pimp Fast Black eclipsed lead star Christopher Reeve like black kryptonite; his gutsy portrayal of real-life teacher Joe Clark in "Lean on Me" put gritty authority in an otherwise TV-level cheerleading movie; his convincing counselor pushed Michael Keaton onto the wagon in "Clean and Sober"; and in "Glory," which also opens this week, he's a memorably vital former gravedigger who volunteers for the Union Army.

Here, he brings that in-built, charcoal-eyed sensitivity to an all-too-familiar role and plays like a rascal within the Negro limitations; his Hoke is wily enough in the Southern master-slave code to keep ahead of Mizz Daizzeh for 25 years -- without her even noticing.

Tandy, as the woman who doesn't like to be picked up in front of crowds (too tacky), won't let her driver answer nature's call on one occasion and who begrudgingly starts to love her stalwart companion, is as assured and lovely as she's ever been; and Aykroyd, his sensitive pudginess held in place by strained suspenders, plays Tandy's earnest, goofy son with adroit ungainliness, keeping clear of satirical high jinks. He and Tandy, sitting supportively behind Freeman, make this ride more than worth the trip.

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