PLOT: Coming-of-age tale. At 17, the vicar's son goes off to work part-time for an eccentric actress. Her love of life and contempt for the rules help the young man create his own path in life.
Driving Lessons is a charming film that gets nudged toward greatness by Julie Walters. Her performance alone is worth the price of admission.
Harry Potter sidekick Rupert Grint -- also putting in a memorable performance -- stars as Ben, a nerdy young man at his mother's beck and call.
Mom (Laura Linney) is an obsessive and a religious fanatic who keeps Ben busy delivering food to the elderly and attending Bible classes.
She's also giving him driving lessons during summer vacation. Ben is a good guy, obediant and sweet, but he senses that much is wrong at home with mom and dad (Nicholas Farrell), who's a vicar. First of all, Ben's parents seem to barely tolerate each other. Then there's the bizarre lodger mom has taken in.
And how to describe mom's relationship with the cute young curate at Bible school?
Ben decides to get a part-time job. He gets hired as a companion to an aging actress, Dame Eve Walton (Julie Walters), who is highly eccentric.
Evie, as she's called, shoplifts, drinks to excess and spouts poetry and Shakespeare at will. She is willful, vaguely dishonest, quite a slob and much more fun than anyone Ben has ever encountered before. She is both a bother and a revelation to Ben, who knows only how to follow the rules.
The first time Ben tries to quit the job, Evie talks him into a day in her garden, acting out some of her favourite plays. She encourages his own attempts at poetry.
When Ben's mother forbids an overnight camping trip, Evie finds a way to get Ben to come along anyway. Then she tricks him into driving her to Edinburgh for a week, and it's there that Ben's further education in the way of music and women and wine continues. Conflict between his mother and Evie eventually helps Ben find his own way toward adult life.
Driving Lessons is, obviously, a rite-of-passage outing, but it's also a film about the transformative power of art. Ben wants to be poet and he discovers a whole world outside his mother's infantile (and hypocritical) bible thumping. Driving Lessons is a slender film and not entirely satisfying, but it's a pleasure to look at. In Toronto, the film is only at the Carlton; if you want to see it, hurry up, because it likely won't survive the coming avalanche of Christmas blockbusters.
BOTTOM LINE: See it for the performances.
(This film is rated PG)
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