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Mood:
- HumorousTouchingOffbeatSentimental
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Plot:
- Actor's LifeComing of AgeFriendshipParents and ChildrenTeenage LifeYouthCouplesFamily Problems more...
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Genres:
- ComedyDrama
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Time/Period:
- Contemporary
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Humor:
- Irreverent Humor
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Attitudes:
- Semi SeriousRealistic
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Driving Lessons, 2006
English
UK
Profile of Driving Lessons
Driving Lessons can be described as touching, humorous, and offbeat. The plot revolves around the life of an actor, family problems, and coming of age. Its comic aspect comes from irreverent humor. Driving Lessons's main genres are drama and comedy. In approach, it is realistic. It takes place in contemporary times.
Summary of Driving Lessons
With his orange-colored bowl haircut and freckled cheeks, actor Rupert Grint (known by millions of pre-teens as Harry Potter's cinematic sidekick) is perfectly cast as Ben, an awkward teenage boy whose reticence almost trespasses into total muteness. After a lifetime of being reined in by his overbearing, deeply religious mother (the always spot-on Laura Linney), Ben enters into the social world via his job as assistant to one spitfire of a diva, the washed-up actress Eve Walton (the inimitable Julie Walters of EDUCATING RITA fame). Walton, unable to accept the disintegration of her once-lauded career, chews up the scenery with her theatrics, culled from both plays of her past (think Shakespeare soliloquizing on cue) and creations of her imagination (she constantly invents stories to tell Ben, forgetting them only hours later). Yet it is exactly this overdramatic flair for life that awakens something in the actress's repressed assistant, and, for the first time, Ben begins to assert himself and his ideas. Of course, this is much to the chagrin of his pious, controlling mother, who struggles in her stern way to keep Ben on the leash she has worked so hard to tighten around him.
First-time director Jeremy Brock is no stranger to writing roles for strong women, having penned the scripts for MRS. BROWN and CHARLOTTE GRAY (played by Dame Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett). He proves that his sensitivity to detail and nuance translates to his directorial persona, crafting a movie that is as impeccably acted as it is carefully written, creating a balance between comedy and heartfelt drama that resonates deeply.
Details
| Language: | English |
| Country: | UK |
| Release date: | 30 April 2006 |
| Runtime: | 98 min |
Cast and Crew
as Laura Marshall
as Ben Marshall
as Evie Walton
Photos
Clips
Critics Reviews
San Francisco Chronicle
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- by: Ruthe Stein
Variety
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- by: Ronnie Scheib
Users Reviews
- 23.March.2009
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- by: prozac pop
- prozac pop rated this movie6/10Okay
