[.ca] Driving Lessons

Rupert Grint and Julie Waters find something else to do together besides "Harry Potter":
Like many I checked out "Driving Lessons" because it has Rupert Grint doing something other than Ron Weasley in a "Harry Potter" movie. I was researching to see what else the trio of young stars of those movies had done and discovered that Emma Watson has yet to do anything else while Daniel Radcliffe, who first came to our attention in a BBC production of "David Copperfield," has been performing "Equus" on stage, opposite Richard Griffiths, who plays Uncle Vernon in the "Harry Potter" movies. Here we have Grint playing opposite Julie Walters, who plays Ron Weasley's mum and who now has quite a different role to play in this film by first time director Jeremy Brock, who wrote the screenplays for "Mrs. Brown" and "The Last King of Scotland." Clearly it was the script that attracted not only Grint and Watlers, but Laura Linney as well, when certainly suggests that it is well worth checking out. Grint plays Ben Marshall, whose only two concerns are getting his driver's license and impressing a girl that he likes. However, his idea of coming to an emergency stop is to drive up on a lawn and run the car into something, which is nothing compared to the disaster that awaits when Ben summons up the courage to read aloud to the girl a poem he has written and she dismisses him as being "weird." Ben's mother Laura (Linney) insists she will teach him to drive, but clearly she does not want him to succeed. What she wants is for him to play a eucalyptus tree in a church pageant, a telling metaphor for their trouble relationship. Ben is hired by Evie Walton (Walters) to do odd jobs around her house and the older woman turns out to be an eccentric actress. Predictably enough, Ben and Evie are the best things that have happened to each other in a long time. He needs more than just the opportunity to learn how to drive a car, and both directly and indirectly Evie is able to help him with his education in many key regards. She needs more than just an audience and Ben provides support in a whole bunch of key ways. An obvious goal here is for Grint to carry off a role other than Ron Wesley and Grint easily accomplishes this with an understated earnestness that works well for the character of Ben. One thing I especially liked about his performance is that when Ben apologizes (which he has several opportunities to do), you actually believe the kid, and he does a nice job reciting Shakespeare too. Of course, given how messed up his parents are you have to wonder how he turned out to be such a fundamentally good kid. Meanwhile, Walters manages to keep Evie grounded when ample opportunities exist for her to go way over the top and run away with the film (in a bad way). Linney is playing the villain in the story, usually with a smile plastered on her face and only her eyes betraying what is really going on in her warped little mind. Also worth mentioning is Michelle Duncan as Bryony, the young girl who not only would like to hear Ben's poetry, but who also wants to get to the intended payoff of the private poetry reading as well. "Driving Lessons" is one of those movies whose elements will remind you of other films. The relationship between Ben and Evie recalls clearly "Harold and Maude," albeit without the sexual element. The relationship between Ben and his father (Nicholas Farrell) recalls "Ordinary People" and Walters is playing the latest in a long series of eccentric English actresses (insert your favorite example here). However, for me the problematic element of this film is in trying to decide what position it is taking on Christianity. Cleary Laura's hypocrisy is a target, but the same can be said for the ineffectualness of Ben's father as a rather boring vicar. But when Laura gets her comeuppance it seems to me that the congregation comes under ridicule as well. The music Brock selected for the soundtrack covers both sides as well, with covers of Woody Guthrie's "Jesus Christ" as well as the traditional "God Don't Never Change." I cannot decide if Brock is making a particular point, simply obscuring his tracks, or trying to have it both ways. Final Warning: The film is rated PG-13 because Ben lets loose with a couple of bits of profanity at the end and has a bedroom scene earlier on, so younger viewers picking up this movie because Grint and Walters are in it could be surprised and not in a pleasant may with the more mature elements.