Drive – The Pretenders Review: A Familiar Romance That Tries to Find Its Own Lane

Drive – The Pretenders Review: Fake engagement, enemies-to-lovers romance, and the high-pressure world of motorsports come together to deliver a romance film that casual viewers will enjoy. The German-language film offers familiar romance, conflict, and eventual reconciliation, with small twists in the middle to set it apart from others in the genre.

The cast includes Lisa-Marie Koroll, Amin Baahmed, Gustav Schmidt, Misel Maticevic, Lucie Heinze, Frederic Linkemann, Inka Friedrich, Jeanette Hain, Philippe Brenninkmeyer, and Sára Korbelová. Sergej Moya directs the film that is adapted from Tamara Lush’s popular Wattpad novel Drive.

Drive – The Pretenders Review

A Familiar Romance With an Appealing Setup

Sarah Jenkins, driven by her love for racing and desperately looking for a means to pay off a huge debt, finds herself a job as a race car mechanic where she crosses paths with Dante Annunziata. There’s an immediate spark, but Dante’s controversy-ridden reputation calls for Sarah to become his fake fiancée in exchange for repayment of her debt. Of course, the romance becomes a natural part of their lives quite quickly – a turn of events we have seen too many times.

Combining two familiar tropes of romance drama films, fake engagement and enemies-to-lovers romance, the film’s motorsport setting adds another dimension to the story, although fast cars and forbidden romance have long been the best of friends in the world. One of the interesting parts of the film is that Sarah isn’t just another romantic partner pushing Dante to heights. She is ambitious and talented, and beyond the emotional push and pull between the characters, her ambition shines through. Her desire to prove herself in a male-dominated profession adds charm to the story.

Meanwhile, Dante is positioned as a self-destructive but talented athlete who is going through trauma of his own. His destructive behaviours have caused people to become wary of him, a storyline that works well in these films. Sarah is brought in to whitewash his reputation, but it also brings its fair share of troubles and introspection for him.

Unfortunately for the film, it takes forever to get to the conflict, and then everything is solved far too quickly, so much so that viewers will find themselves surprised at the breakneck speed. Moreover, the conflict itself doesn’t have much at stake, and it’s so surface-level that it doesn’t add anything to the runtime. While you wait for the two characters to go through some difficulties that they have to overcome, the conflict is teased from the outset but eventually turns out to be nothing. Thus, before you know it, the film is over, although it takes forever to get to the end point.

The fake romance aspect, too, doesn’t hold much weight since viewers have seen this many times. There’s not much tension in the bubbling romance since not much time is spent for the romance to bubble in the first place! The individual journeys, too, are lost somewhere along the way; the film especially drops the ball on Sarah’s storyline as, although you’d expect it to get somewhere, the film somehow loses sight of what’s at stake for her. The film’s half-baked execution is its biggest flaw, as all the conflict is concentrated on one part of the runtime, while the rest focuses on postcard-perfect locations and pretty clothes.

Lisa-Marie Koroll and Amin Baahmed Lead the Romance

Koroll and Baahmed could’ve been watchable and even believable had their characters had consistency and a good arc, but Drive – The Pretenders is a bit too lost in its own unending threads to make any of it work. There are moments in the runtime when the two share a few serviceable vulnerable moments, but they are few and far between for any of them to be memorable.

For Koroll, especially, it’s unfortunate since Sarah starts off with a charm and determination that you’d want to watch develop on-screen, but somehow, in the midst of the romance, she is constantly made to choose between her ambition and her romance with Dante in the screenplay, so much so that she is left to be a ghost of a character she could’ve been.

Baahmed, on the other hand, has so much complex emotional baggage that he’s not given the opportunity to juggle any of it. The writing simply doesn’t develop the characters enough for the actors to bring to the screen. Together, as well, viewers won’t be able to figure out their emotional bonding enough for their romance to really make an impact. It’s ultimately frustrating because, in the end, none of the threads that the film presents has good emotional payoff.

Can the Motorsports Setting Raise the Stakes?

For a film based in the motorsports world, you’d expect there to be more thrilling racing sequences that leave your heart thumping. Unfortunately for Drive – The Pretenders, there’s nothing that really stands out in that regard. While the sequences are good-looking and slick, there are many moments that feel important. It’s clear from the onset that the racing sequences aren’t the primary part of the film and have been added because they have to be.

The racing aspect could’ve also been a source of contention between Dante and Sarah, since they are both supposed to be gifted drivers. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t focus on that aspect either. Thus, by the end, it’s a bit confusing to wonder what the film actually wanted to focus on, as, while trying to juggle a hundred different things, it focuses on none. The film, however, looks stunning and the music is catchy as well, so if you’re looking for a light-hearted watch, this one does the job.

Final Verdict

In the end, the most frustrating part about the film is that despite promising a strong female lead in Sarah, her character becomes nothing more than the romantic lead in the end. Her ambition and determination are forgotten along the way, and she’s constantly shown to be worrying about Dante and helping him succeed. Even if I forget all the problems in the screenplay, this is one issue that, in my book, is unforgivable. Overall, a frustrating romance, to be sure.

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