A featured selection at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, "Driving Lessons” is a humorous and touching coming-of-age tale.
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Ben (Rupert Grint, Ron in the "Harry Potter” films) is a shy and awkward teenager who dreams of becoming a poet. He feels stifled in his home, where his mother (Laura Linney) is an overbearing, hypocritical Christian who limits his activities to playing a tree in the church play and letting her teach him to drive.
Their driving lessons actually are a cover for his mother to pursue an affair with a parochial schoolteacher (Oliver Milburn). Ben's mild-mannered vicar father (Nicholas Farrell) seems unaware of the affair and does nothing to keep his domineering wife in check.
When Ben's mother lets him take a job, he winds up working as an assistant for eccentric, washed-up actress Evie Walton (Julie Walters). She's a diva given to shoplifting and making up stories, but she encourages Ben's literary aspirations and helps him assert himself. His attentive care helps her cope with the loss of her career and confidence.
The story isn't particularly original, but excellent performances make "Driving Lessons” an effective and engaging dramatic comedy. The diverse sound track featuring songs by Nick Drake, Salsa Celtica, Sufjan Stevens and Ben Folds adds to the British indie's charm.
— Brandy McDonnell
