Drive – The Pretenders Review: ★½☆☆☆ (1.5/5)
Drive: The Pretenders mixes fake dating, enemies to lovers, and motorsport, but it never gives any of them enough time to work. It looks good and has a catchy soundtrack, though the weak story and forgotten heroine are hard to forgive.
Rating: ★½☆☆☆ (1.5/5)
Platform: Prime Video
Genre: Sports Romance
Language: German
Runtime: 1 hour 41 minutes
Director: Sergej Moya
Cast: Lisa-Marie Koroll, Amin Baahmed
Fake engagement, enemies to lovers, and fast cars are three ingredients that go well together on paper. Drive: The Pretenders puts all three in one German film on Prime Video, adapted from Tamara Lush’s popular Wattpad novel. It aims to be an easy, light watch, and for casual viewers who just want pretty people and pretty places, it might do. But it never finds a lane of its own.
The story follows Sarah Jenkins, played by Lisa-Marie Koroll, a mechanic at Eagle Racing who has dreamed of being a professional driver since she was a kid. She was a strong kart racer, but she had to give up that dream after her father died and left behind a huge debt.
Dante Annunziata, played by Amin Baahmed, is a talented racing driver who has become unstable after losing his sister Gabriella in a car crash. When a picture of the two of them is misread, the team asks Sarah to pretend to be Dante’s fiancée.
In return, they offer to wipe out her family’s debt and give her a chance to train as a driver. What starts as a deal slowly turns into real feelings, even as Sarah hides her racing dreams from him.
There are good ideas here. Sarah is more than a love interest. She is skilled and ambitious, and one critic liked that she is proud of herself and that her scars are not treated as a mystery to solve.
Her solo training scenes, including one where she sets a track record, are among the best parts because they show her talent instead of just telling us. Dante carries his own pain, too. He feels guilty about an argument he had with his sister before she died, and that guilt shadows his racing.
Sadly, the film does not give these ideas room to grow. One reviewer says it takes forever to reach any real conflict, and then everything is solved too fast. The conflict also has little at stake, and what is teased from the start turns out to be almost nothing.
The fake romance does not carry much weight either, since the film does not spend enough time letting the romance build. The other critic agrees that the pacing hurts, with scenes that should add tension rushed, while the love story is underdeveloped. Much of the runtime goes to postcard-perfect locations and pretty clothes.
The characters suffer most. Both actors could have been believable with a clear arc, but the writing gives them too many loose threads. Koroll starts Sarah with charm and determination, but she is repeatedly asked to choose between her ambition and her romance until she becomes a shadow of what she could have been.
Baahmed has plenty of emotional baggage, but the script never lets him use it. Ruben, played by Gustav Schmidt, adds a rivalry because he fears losing the spot he worked years for, but his conflicts feel more useful than deep.
The motorsport setting also disappoints. For a film about racing, there is no sequence that makes your heart pound. The races look slick, but they feel like they were added because they had to be. The racing could have been a real source of tension between two gifted drivers, but the film does not use it. It tries to juggle a hundred things and ends up focusing on none.
The biggest complaint is that Sarah, who promises to be a strong female lead, becomes just the romantic lead by the end. Her ambition fades, and she spends her time worrying about Dante and helping him win. One critic called this unforgivable. In fairness, Amin Baahmed has real screen presence, and many viewers will enjoy simply looking at him. The film also looks stunning, and the music is catchy.
Overall, it is a frustrating romance with a few nice parts and little else.
If you are curious about the premiere details, our Drive: The Pretenders release guide has them all. For something much heavier, our review of The One About Matthew Perry covers a honest and moving documentary, and if you want a laugh that does not quite land, our review of Minimum Wage looks at a messy Netflix pizza shop comedy.
Drive: The Pretenders is now streaming on Prime Video.