Little heart and no soul

Rating: Null/10 (4 August 2004)

I find myself perplexed by the hostile comments concerning Estella Warren's character, Sophia Simone, in Driven. Ms. Warren was chosen for this role because she fit the character, i.e. the type of model/minor actress that often hang around race car drivers. She was given the thankless task of having to play off two very wooden actors in Schweiger and Pardue, who seem to be obsessed with one another in a sort of odd homoerotic subtext. Other than her role as beard to these two, Estella's role in Driven is to stand around looking concerned, which she does reasonably well, especially considering this was her first major film role.
Sophia is given no backstory. Apparently she is a synchronized swimmer, which is the only thing that could explain her swimming pool scene, which is esthetically lovely but unrelated to the plot. Incidentally, that pool scene is the only scene in the entire film with believable emotions, which makes me suspect that it was not written by Stallone, and may even have been improvised. Not surprisingly, this scene is often left out of Driven when it is shown on TV. Thus the only scene in the movie with a discernible heart is removed, leaving the film even more cold and empty than it already is.
The problems with Driven is that is all about special effects, but pretends to be about human beings. Stallone has been milking the Rocky formula endlessly, and does so again, stressing male competition as a form of bonding. No female character in a Stallone film is ever allowed to do anything but look worshipfully at the male characters, waiting patiently for them to come to her, if they survive. In that pool scene Ms. Warren does something unique for a female in a Stallone film. She shows that a female character has a skill and a life outside of, and independent of, the male characters. The hard thing for me to accept is that a woman of such skill and beauty would ever allow a man to tell her she is just "a distraction" in his life and have anything to do with him ever again.
Overall, Driven is a fairly dull and pedestrian movie. It is not the worst film ever made, but it is what one would expect from a collaboration between Sylvester Stallone and Renny Harlin, two self important males with large egos and small talent. Neither has ever made a film with any real soul. Who would expect anything different when they work together?