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Daisy Werthan (Jessica Tandy) is a 72-year-old Jewish widow, and a retired schoolteacher. She lives in Atlanta with her housekeeper, Idella (Esther Rolle). Daisy heads out one day, but in backing the car out of her garage winds up driving it nearly off an embankment. She escapes unharmed, but the car needs to be towed back up, which attracts a large crowd of onlookers, including her son Boolie (Dan Aykroyd). Boolie tells Daisy she's reached a point where driving is a handicap to her and others, and he recommends getting a chauffeur. Daisy refuses to hear any of it, not wanting to give up her independence, plus she can always take the trolleys to get around if need be. Fortunately for Boolie, someone shows up at his factory one day that turns out to be the right guy. One of Boolie's employees is trapped in a stuck elevator, and Boolie arrives to hear the news that a technician can't be out for hours. A voice then booms from the back of the room near the entrance, advising the stuck employee on how to fix the problem. It works, and Boolie is then introduced to the helping man by another employee who had told Boolie could make a good chauffeur for his mother since he used to drive around the town judge.
That man is Hoke Coleburn (Morgan Freeman), and Boolie hires him after their first conversation, but Boolie warns him that Daisy can be rather stubborn. However, she can say whatever she wants, but she cannot fire him. Hoke is under Boolie's employment. They strike the deal, and Boolie drives Hoke to the house where he can settle in, being around each day as needed. At first, Daisy doesn't want Hoke touching anything in the house, or distracting Idella, or looking through her things, so he just sits in the kitchen and hangs out. Eventually, though, she's running out of household items and needs to hit the market, so she starts walking to the trolley. Hoke follows and rides along her in the car, finally convincing her to let him drive her since Boolie's wasting money paying him to just sit in the kitchen.
Gradually, but carefully, Hoke engages Daisy in conversation during the car rides and back at home. She gets used to be driven around, but gets a little agitated when she comes out of church one day and sees Hoke ready to pick her up right at the bottom of the church steps. She feels it's vulgar to show off like that, even though Hoke was one of several chauffeurs waiting at the steps. Still, she continues to open up just a little bit to him.
That is, until one morning when Boolie gets a call from Daisy telling him she needs him at the house right away. Boolie arrives concerned and Daisy says that Hoke is stealing food. She took inventory of the silverware first, and then the items in the pantry. She had nine cans of salmon, and now she has eight. She left him plenty of food, but he still is taking her personal property. Boolie doesn't see what the big deal and even says he'll give her the 33-cents to get another can, but Daisy decides she wants Hoke to be fired. Hoke arrives a short time later and after they all say their hellos but before the salmon accusations can begin, he tells her that he ate one of the cans of salmon yesterday because the leftover pork chops were going bad, and he stopped by the market earlier to get a new can for her. Daisy, stunned but pleased, thanks him, and the entire salmon-stealing incident is never brought up. Boolie smiles, and Daisy comes to the realization that she can trust Hoke.
At a cemetary, Daisy asks Hoke to place some flowers on a friend's grave, but Hoke admits that he won't be able to find it since he can't read. Daisy says that's nonsense; Hoke knows the alphabet, so he can learn to read. She has him phonetically figure out what letters to look for in the name, and Hoke successfully finds the gravestone. Daisy suppresses a smile when she finds that Hoke was successful. The next evening, after dropping Daisy off at a Christmas family gathering, she gives him a book that she used to teach her students how to read and write with. She tells him it's not a Christmas gift and not to make a fuss over it. Hoke is grateful and assures her he'll use it to continue learning.
We move forward to several years later. Daisy needs to head to Mobile, Alabama for her brother's 90th birthday, and Hoke drives her there. After stopping at one point for a "car picnic" lunch, two police officers approach the car distrustful of Hoke, since he's black. They ask if this is his car. Daisy says it's hers. They check his IDs and see that everything is on the up-and-up. Hoke and Daisy have finished their lunch by this point so they drive off as the officers remark how "sad" it is seeing "an old n***** and an old Jew" together. Times are changing and the civil rights movement has started, but obviously not everyone has come around yet.
They've made a wrong turn and are running late. Hoke stops to gas up the car while Daisy uses the restroom. A while later on the road, Hoke has to stop to relieve himself as well since he wouldn't have been allowed to use the restroom at the gas station. Daisy gets nervous being alone in the car while it's dark outside, and calls for Hoke. When Hoke returns to see if she's all right, she pretends she wasn't scared. They arrive in Mobile in time for the celebration, which Hoke also partakes in.
Back in Atlanta, Daisy and her Mahjong circle are playing while Hoke and Idella are in the kitchen prepping food and watching a soap opera. Hoke brings the cake out to the girls, but as he returns, Idella drops the bowl she was prepping peas in, and we can decipher that she's passed away. If we couldn't from this, we certainly could when we cut to the next scene and Idella's in a casket for her funeral. Boolie, Daisy and Hoke all attend. Back at the house one morning, Hoke has arrived despite an ice storm that has knocked out power, and he's brought coffee. They both admit that they've gotten on fine doing their own cooking and gardening, but no one can touch Idella's coffee.
Fast-forwarding again, it's now 1971. Hoke arrives at the house to find Daisy distraught, claiming she can't find the papers that she was supposed to grade for her students. Hoke realizes this is serious and calls Boolie to the house, then calms Daisy down and lets her know she's fine, she just had a bit of a mental episode. Daisy grasps Hoke's hand and thanks him, calling him his best friend.
Daisy enters a retirement home, and Boolie has sold the family home. He and Hoke, who is now-retired from driving since his eyesight has deteriorated a bit over the couple of years since Daisy went into the retirement home, walk through it one more time before going to visit Daisy for Thanksgiving. Daisy is at first silent as they meet her, but finally sits down and jokes around, telling Boolie to go charm the nurses since Hoke came to see her, not him. Hoke and Daisy chat and the film ends with Hoke feeding Daisy the dessert that she didn't yet eat from her dinner.
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Driving Miss Daisy won a total of four Oscars at the 62nd Annual Academy Awards ceremony out of nine nominations. The wins were for Best Picture, Best Actress (Tandy, who at age 81 became the oldest winner in the category's history), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Makeup. In winning the top prize, it won out over Born on the Fourth of July, Dead Poets Society, Field of Dreams (which actually is my personal choice to have won) and My Left Foot. It is to this day the last PG-rated film to win the top prize. It was also tremendously successful at the box office, even before it won all those awards. There was some controversy that year when Driving Miss Daisy, a film highlighting the Old South and how blacks were perceived then, wound up the big winner, but another 1989 film that was a favorite to many, Do the Right Thing (which is quite a racially-charged film), wasn't even nominated for Best Picture. In fact, one awards presenter, Kim Basinger, decided to go all Jane Fonda before giving out her award and blasted the Academy for not recognizing the Spike Lee film amongst the Best Picture nominees. For what it's worth, I remember this and the audience gave her a rousing round of applause, as opposed to the boos Michael Moore got in 2003 when he blasted President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. Be that as it may, this film deserved the accolades it received, and to this day is still a favorite to many when it appears on television. Morgan Freeman became a star, Jessica Tandy was rediscovered, and Dan Aykroyd broke through beyond his comedy perception that many fans had of him, showing he could handle dramatic roles as well. Plus, let's be honest, how often today does a 99-minute film win Best Picture? Sometimes it's nice to get a story told in under two hours that is of high quality. Driving Miss Daisy is absolutely high quality.
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