Driving Lessons
| Driving Lessons | |
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Original poster
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| Directed by | Jeremy Brock |
| Produced by | Julia Chasman |
| Written by | Jeremy Brock |
| Starring |
Julie Walters Rupert Grint Laura Linney |
| Music by | Clive Carroll John Renbourn |
| Cinematography | David Katznelson |
| Edited by | Trevor Waite |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by |
Palisades Tartan/Tartan Films (UK) Sony Pictures Classics (US) |
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Release date
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Running time
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98 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Box office | £767,299.36 |
Driving Lessons is a 2006 British dramedy film written and directed by Jeremy Brock. The plot focuses on the relationship between a shy teenaged boy and an ageing eccentric actress.
Seventeen-year-old Ben Marshall is the sensitive, poetry-writing son of complacent and emasculated Robert, a vicar obsessed with ornithology, and domineering overbearing mother Laura, whose strong religious beliefs lead her to perform numerous charitable acts while ignoring the emotional needs of her own family, such as forcing Ben to deliver meals on wheels despite his having no car. Her faith does not, however, hinder her from engaging in an affair with Peter, a young curate portraying Jesus Christ in the church pageant she is directing.
Notably Laura's religious side appears to be completely invented to simply bully her husband and son. Amongst Laura's many random and mean-spirited rulings she refuses to allow Ben to have a mobile phone (they cause cancer), refuses to allow him to hang around with people his own age and uses his driving lessons as a way to be ferried around for her affair with Peter, who appears unrepentant for sleeping with his mentor's wife. Miserable in his life, Ben writes poems for a girl, named Sarah, he knows from church. He decides to read his most recent "Sarah Poem" to her aloud, only to result in him being rebuked by Sarah. Before Sarah walks off in embarrassment, she tells him that he's "just too weird."
At his mother's urging he seeks summer employment, so that she can pay for the upkeep of a mental patient, named Mr. Fincham, she has adopted. Ben responds to an ad placed by Dame Evie Walton, an alcoholic, classically trained actress who was reduced to accepting a role on a daytime soap opera when her once flourishing career began to fade and who hasn't worked since the series ended, to her annoyance. In search of a companion to assist her in the house and drive her to various appointments, Evie immediately takes to Ben and offers him the position.
Ben's conservative upbringing hasn't prepared him for the adventures he begins to experience with his new employer. When Laura refuses to allow Ben to take a camping trip with Evie, she suggests they take a drive in the country instead, then "swallows" the car key when they find an idyllic spot for setting up a campsite. The following morning she announces she needs Ben to drive her to the Edinburgh International Book Festival, where she has been invited to read poetry. Their road trip proves to be an epiphany for Ben, who has his first sexual experience with Bryony, one of the young women organizing the event; learns the importance of accepting responsibility and honouring commitments; and finds the inner strength to stand up for himself and speak his mind.
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