Some romantic films make you root for two people to get together. Others make you wonder why they bothered in the first place. Drive – The Pretenders falls frustratingly close to the second category. With attractive leads, a glamorous racing world and a fake-engagement plot, the German-language romance has everything it needs to deliver an entertaining, uncomplicated love story. Instead, it settles for a predictable relationship that never develops enough personality to justify the time spent watching it.
Directed by Sergej Moya and inspired by Tamara Lush’s Wattpad novel Drive, the film follows Sarah Jenkins (Lisa-Marie Koroll) and Dante Annunziata (Amin Baahmed) as a fake engagement offers both something they need: Dante gets a chance to repair his public image, while Sarah hopes the arrangement will help her own ambitions. Naturally, the professional agreement becomes complicated when genuine feelings enter the picture.
The premise is familiar, but familiarity is hardly the problem. Fake dating can be an effective romantic setup because the characters must constantly negotiate the difference between what they perform for other people and what they actually feel. The pretence creates opportunities for humour, vulnerability and uncomfortable revelations. Here, however, the film seems far more interested in reaching the expected romantic destination than in making the journey worthwhile.
Sarah and Dante's relationship develops according to a formula that rarely leaves room for surprise. Attraction leads to complications, the arrangement becomes emotionally inconvenient, and the inevitable question of whether their feelings are real begins to dominate the story. These developments are not inherently objectionable; audiences do not necessarily turn to romantic films for radical narrative experimentation. But familiar storytelling still needs convincing characters. Without that foundation, even a well-established trope becomes an exercise in waiting for events everyone can predict.
The film's biggest missed opportunity is its treatment of Sarah's ambition. Her interest in motorsport gives the story a potentially interesting starting point. Sarah is not simply an ordinary young woman who happens to meet a famous driver. She wants to establish herself in a competitive industry, and her ambitions could have created a meaningful connection with Dante. He has achieved the professional success she wants, but his public troubles threaten to undermine it. Their different circumstances could force them to reconsider what success means, how much of their lives they are willing to sacrifice for it, and whether ambition becomes harder to sustain when other people control the narrative. That is a much more interesting story than the one the film ultimately prioritises.
As the romance takes over, Sarah's professional aspirations lose some of their importance. The racing world remains an attractive backdrop, but it rarely feels essential to the emotional conflict. The sport could have supplied the film with genuine stakes: competition, professional insecurity and the pressure of proving oneself in an environment where talent does not automatically guarantee opportunity. Instead, motorsport often feels like an aesthetic choice, giving the romance a distinctive setting without significantly shaping its direction.
This leaves Sarah in an awkward position. The character is introduced through her determination, yet the story increasingly defines her through her relationship with Dante. Her ambitions should remain central to her decisions, including the decision to enter a fake engagement. They should challenge the relationship rather than simply provide a reason for it to begin. By failing to develop that tension, the screenplay reduces a potentially compelling protagonist to a familiar romantic role.
Dante presents a different problem. A flawed romantic lead can be fascinating, particularly when fame has insulated him from the consequences of his behaviour. But a troubled reputation is not a substitute for character development. The film needs to establish what Dante has done, why it matters beyond the immediate threat to his career, and what he must confront if he genuinely wants to change. Otherwise, his redemption risks becoming little more than another stage in the romance.
Lisa-Marie Koroll and Amin Baahmed cannot entirely overcome these limitations. Their performances have to carry a relationship that the writing does not develop with enough specificity. Chemistry is not simply about making two people look convincing together; it comes from the small details that make a connection feel particular to them. Shared humour, genuine disagreements and moments of unexpected understanding can turn a predictable romance into an engaging one. Drive – The Pretenders does not consistently provide those details, leaving the central couple feeling more like the leads of a familiar romantic template than two people whose relationship viewers have reason to care about.
The screenplay also struggles to make its conflicts matter. Obstacles in a romance should reveal something about the characters or force them to make difficult choices. When complications exist mainly to delay an inevitable resolution, tension becomes mechanical. Drive – The Pretenders repeatedly approaches situations that could expose uncomfortable truths about fame, trust, or ambition, but does not give them enough weight. The result is a film that keeps moving without generating much emotional momentum.
Its polished presentation only makes this weakness more noticeable. The racing imagery and stylish settings give the film a glossy surface, and there is an obvious appeal in placing a romance within the world of professional motorsport. Yet attractive visuals cannot compensate for a story that lacks substance. The cars may provide speed, but the relationship itself never develops comparable energy. Even the film's more intimate moments struggle to land because the emotional groundwork has not been properly laid.
What makes the disappointment particularly sharp is that the film did not need a radically different premise. It needed to take its existing ideas more seriously. Sarah's career could have challenged Dante's assumptions; his public troubles could have forced him to reckon with the person he had become; their arrangement could have created consequences neither was prepared to face. Instead, the story repeatedly chooses the easiest route towards a conventional romantic conclusion.
Drive – The Pretenders is not an irredeemable film. Its premise is accessible, its setting gives it some visual appeal, and viewers seeking undemanding romantic entertainment may find it watchable. But there is a difference between a film being easy to watch and giving its audience a reason to remember it. This one mistakes the ingredients of a romance for the romance itself.
Final Score- [4/10]
Reviewed by - Anjali Sharma
Follow @AnjaliS54769166 on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times