Driving Lessons

Ben is seventeen; his father is a vicar and his mother runs the parish and controls everything. He writes poems at home and shows them to nobody. Looking for summer work he ends up employed by a retired actress. Evie is old, difficult, drinks, and answers to nobody. She puts him in the car, takes to the roads, and pulls him outside the order his mother built. Jeremy Brock writes and directs. Rupert Grint plays Ben and Julie Walters plays Evie. Brock is known as a screenwriter and this is his first film as director; the narrative rests on his own youth and he really did work for such a woman. The subject is becoming independent. What is between Ben and Evie is not a relation of teacher and pupil; she is as lost as he is. The mother is the film's hardest element; religion here is shown not as belief but as an instrument of control. Rupert Grint was appearing in a large series at the time and this part is outside that mould; his performance is measured. Julie Walters plays her part broadly and that is deliberate; the woman lives her own life as a stage. Its limit is formula; the coming of age narrative follows its expected stages and the ending is emotional. Who it is for: viewers who like British independent comedy drama and performance driven films. Who it is not for: it is predictable, the characters are close to types, and the humour is measured.