Movie Review – Driving Lessons

Driving Lessons (2006) – A shy young man, Ben, (Rupert Grint) takes a job working for an eccentric retired actress, Evie, (Julie Walters) in part to make a little money and in part to escape his domineering mother (Laura Linney).  His browbeaten father, the local vicar, (Nicholas Farrell) has retreated before his wife’s megalomania and carefully ignores her affair with his curate. Evie will take him places he’s never imagined and his mother would never approve. The movie is a warm story of a boy’s coming of age.

Harry Potter fans will find  some familiar faces here as Grint and Walters are re-united.  This is not the greatest coming of age movie of all time.  It relies very heavily on many of the “stock pieces” of the genre and doesn’t really do anything new with them.  At the end the screenplay seems to be at a loss how to end the story.  There’s a couple of odd lurches to the story and then it just sort of peters out.  The story certainly deserved better than it gets.

On the other hand because the story feels less “polished” it comes across as a little more “real”.  Coming of age is awkward and a little untidy.  This falls into my caegory of a “little film”.  Not a big budget, not a sweeping story, just the kind of little story that actually takes place in real people’s lives.  I have a very soft spot for movies like this.  They’re about my two favorite parts – character and story.

While the story revolves around Ben but the real force in the story are the two women.  Evie feels free to simply be herself even as that self is a little lost.  Ben will help her find the way back.  On the other side is Ben’s uber controlling mother.  She is angry and intense.  Nothing makes much of a dent on her.  Linney is just scary good in this role.

There’s a strong religious sub plot here.  The church is not shown at its finest.  Which is not to say that it isn’t a fair representation of at least parts of it.  The mother’s understanding of church is based on a simplistic theology that is used to control everything around her.  The father’s faith is emasculated, just as his wife has emasculated him.  Evie doesn’t think much of faith at all and Ben has been taught not to think at all.  It would have been great if they’d either gone somewhere with this story line or dumped most of it.  This part of the story just kind of hangs there, without purpose or destination.

In the end the movie is just this, a sweet little story with some fascinating characters.  It might have been so much more but it’s just enough as it is.

Rating – *** Worth A Look