Driving Lessons

What’s the Story?

Early in DRIVING LESSONS, 17-year-old Ben (Rupert Grint) decides that he must declare his independence. He has good reason to want distance himself from his family: His demoralized father (Nicholas Farrell), a vicar at the local church, goes along with whatever his self-righteous wife, Laura (Laura Linney), wants. Ben is egged on by his new employer, retired stage actress Evie Walton (Julie Walters, who plays Mrs. Weasley to Grint's Ron in the Harry Potter franchise). Invited to give a reading at the Edinburgh Festival, Evie tricks Ben into driving her there, which means he has to disobey his mother, who's increasingly jealous of Evie. Meanwhile, Laura seeks her own outlets beyond her humdrum lover, Peter (Oliver Milburn), and stultifying husband.

Is It Any Good?

Evie is reportedly based on writer-director Jeremy Brock's own experiences working for Dame Peggy Ashcroft, and Driving Lessons goes on to make terrible fun of the former grand dame. Prone to reciting Shakespeare and urging Ben to explore his "creativity," Evie is equally adept at vulgarity. Her frustration is understandable: Once accustomed to a certain respect during her heyday, she's now relegated to performing for herself in her back yard. She's peculiar and sometimes alarming, but for Ben, her large house -- cluttered with books and papers and memorabilia from a seemingly exciting career -- is increasingly preferable to his own airless home.

Ben's "growing up" takes a most pedestrian form during his trip with Evie -- he learns to drive, of course, as he also takes responsibility for Evie (and, naturally, comes to appreciate her courage) and even finds a way to lose his virginity with Bryony (Michelle Duncan), the pretty, apparently very bored twenty-something woman who greets Evie in Edinburgh. On his return home from his road trip, Ben appears not to have learned a single "lesson." He rejoins his mother, taking his place on stage as a tree. The fact that he still needs saving -- after an entire movie's worth of instruction and rescue from assorted women -- suggests that Ben is well on his way to becoming his father after all.