Driving Lessons
Starring: Rupert Grint, Julie Walters, Nicholas Farrell, Laura Linney, Jordan YoungStudio: Sony Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release: July 3rd 2007
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DVD Review
More down-to-earth than Auntie Mame, Driving Lessons imparts the same simple, but enduring message—be yourself. In the directorial debut from screenwriter Jeremy Brock (Mrs. Brown), 17-year-old Ben (Harry Potter's Rupert Grint, sluggish yet sympathetic) lives with his vicar father, Robert (Nicholas Farrell), and pious mother, Laura (Laura Linney doing a passable, but inconsistent British accent), in a tree-shaded London suburb. Soft-spoken Ben writes poems and looks forward to passing his driver's test. When his mother encourages him to get a job, he becomes an assistant to retired actress Evie Walton (Billy Elliot's Julie Walters, hunched up to look elderly). He finds her overbearing at first. Still, Evie is preferable to Laura, who may do volunteer work with her husband's parishioners, including bizarre boarder Mr. Fincham (Jim Norton), but also cheats on him with Reverend Peter (Oliver Milburn) and engages her resentful son in the subterfuge. Then Evie tricks Ben into driving her to Edinburgh for a poetry reading, where he learns to assert himself and she learns to put the dramatics on hold—at least for a few minutes. Ben also loses his virginity to a woman he just met, sending a secondary message some parents might not appreciate (the film's sprinklings of profanity earned it a PG-13). Driving Lessons itself seems stranded between coming-of-age story and character study. Ironically, Farrell gives the most convincing performance as Ben's bird-loving father. Engaging if uneven, this parable about hypocrisy and self-expression might have been more interesting if presented from his perspective. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Stills from Driving Lessons (click for larger image)
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 More Films about Coming of Age |  The Films of Julie Walters |  Learn to Drive |
User Reviews
different, but not boring - Rating: 3/5
Julie Walters was remarkable in this semi-decent movie that blundered about at times, but was overall quite interesting to watch. And this movie proves that Rupert Grint can, in fact, act.
Driving Lessons - Rating: 5/5
Excellent,full screen and HD quality video. If they can format one disc this way why can't everybody. Played HD player @ small HD screen..
An Accident - Rating: 2/5
I had great expectations for this movie but it did not deliver. It's about the relationship that develops between a sheltered, over-religionized teenager, Ben who goes to work for over-medicated, hyper-eccentric washed-up actress Evie.
The whole plot is predictable. It's obvious form the start that Ben's home life is tottering from the weight of over-religion. You see that coming form the first few scenes and can predict almost how it will end up and it ends up like you imagine. Evie's neediness borders on paralysis and it's painful to watch. Julie Walters plays a good turn as Evie but without a lack of charismatic acting by fellow lead Rupert Grint, it falls on Julie Walters and she just couldn't carry the movie alone.
Driving Lessons Nearly Crashes And Burns - Rating: 3/5
Driving lessons are tough. Life lessons even more so. Combine the two and you've got a whopping big set of obstacles to overcome.
Rupert Grint of Harry Potter fame stars as Ben Marshall, a young high schooler who wants to get his driver's license. Trouble is, though, his excessively over-bearing mother Laura (Laura Linney, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) doesn't give him much help. Her focus is on her stilted relationship with god, her failing marriage to Ben's dad, Father Marshall (Nicholas Farrell), and her growing intimacy with a handsome new clergyman.
The invasion of the Marshall home by a mentally disturbed Mr. Finchman (Jim Norton, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) only adds to Laura Marshall's demands on young Ben; she asks him to go find a job so they can help give funds to Mr. Finchman and get him back on his feet (even though it becomes glaringly obvious that Mr. Finchman has no idea what is going on around him).
The job Ben finds is with an aging and washed-up actress named "Dame" Evie Walton (Julie Walters (also from the Harry Potter film series). What initially seems like physical work for Ben soon turns to a challenge of the heart. Evie and he become close through some outlandish antics the old actress perpetuates upon him; specifically a road trip where Ben comes to terms with his soon-to-be-adult self. Can he stick with his family, including his messed up mother and distant father? Or should he plow his own path with his newfound friend Evie as a guide? Neither option sounds overly appealing but a gathering together of personal nexus points soon make a decision necessary. And Ben's choice will give viewers a great sigh of relief.
Although Rupert Grint does an okay job as Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films, seeing him as a lead actor here was a bit tough to swallow. He is, for the most part, rather wooden and not a very animated character actor. By contrast, Laura Linney, Nicholas Farrell, and the estimable Julie Walters swallow up Grint's lackluster performance and make this film a solid flick. It is Walters specifically whom viewers will eagerly await to see again and again as she steals every scene she's in. Laura Linney does a great job, too, as a despicable and religious contrarian who spends too little time with her son and too much time on herself. Nicholas Farrell as Father Marshall does a good job too, finding solace away from his argumentative wife by burrowing into birding books ...and away from Ben as well (whom is consistently berated by his mother). The ending scene between Ben and his father is pulled off quite well and is the most powerful young Grint has in the film's entirety.
But even with these strong performances the story is slow. And since Rupert Grint is the main character and has the most screen time, Driving Lessons often fails to inspire. If it weren't for the strong supporting cast (especially Julie Walters' performance), this one most likely would've bombed.
A Good Film That's At Times Touching And Humorous - Rating: 4/5
DRIVING LESSONS is an endearing British film about the young Ben Marshall (Harry Potter's Rupert Grint), an overly awkward and shy seventeen year old who lives in a less than ideal home situation. Ben's father is the local parish vicar (Richard Marshall), a well meaning but somewhat defeated man, and his mother Laura (Laura Linney) either has to be in control of everything and when she's not controlling everything, she's a religious fanatic. Laura decides that the family will take in a homeless old man who accidentally killed his wife (driving over her) and it's suggested to Ben that he get a job so he can earn some money to contribute to the new house guest's wellbeing. Ben does in fact get a job, assisting a once great actress Dame Eve Walton (Julie Walters), who is remembered more for her role in a soap opera than her great theatrical triumphs. The eccentric "Evie" seems to be exactly what the young Ben needs. She doesn't so much instill a sense of confidence in him as she exposes him to a new world: one that is full of possibilities, free of judgment, and a world waiting to be explored. This occurs during an unplanned trip to Edinburgh, at least unplanned by Ben, and he learns to dive en route, hence the film's title DRIVING LESSONS.
I'll admit, when I first watched, DRIVING LESSONS it did not appear to be all that original, and if anything a bit cliché. It has some moments where the film is a bit improbable and a few scenes could have been deleted or tweaked a bit to make a stronger story. The characters started out more as caricatures than actual people. Ben seemed almost too fearful and withdrawn, Laura Marshall a bit too fanatical, and Evie a bit too eccentric. You almost think "I've seen this before in other films," yet as the film progresses, the story gets stronger and the characters, especially Ben and Evie grow on the viewer, the characters become individuals, a bond develops between the viewers and characters, and we care how the film will conclude.
Overall in spite of its flaws, it is an enjoyable film with some rather humorous moments and worth watching.
