Arguably the most startling insight of Jeremy Brock’s smooth-running “Driving Lessons” is the revelation that Laura Linney could make a very good baddie in a thriller.
Hints of this possibility surface throughout her character’s interactions with 17-year-old son, Ben, who’s facing a summer under her domineering tutelage. Ben’s father (Nicholas Farrell), a vicar, lets his wife rule his awkward son while he tends to his flock.
But it crystallizes into a certain fact when mom Laura comes face-to-face with Evie, the wondrous and blasphemous actress who has become Ben’s employer, mentor and friend.
When Evie (Julie Walters) shows up on the doorstep, it’s the Brit version of a catfight: underplayed, invisible fur floating down. Linney’s turn as the sanctimonious mom is as taut and tense as Walter’s portrayal is willfully overblown, then delicate.
Laura appears to win the battle for control of the wheel of her son’s life. Over the course of the film, he’s been tentative enough to let her drive.
Rupert Grint, better known as Harry Potter’s red-haired pal Ron Weasley, does a quiet job of making Ben’s passivity aggravating but also understandable. His soft face embodies Ben’s cowed submissiveness, but his eyes insist there’s a mind at work figuring things out.
While “Driving Lessons” never quite idles, Ben and Evie’s journey of mutual transformation feels familiar. Haven’t we been down this road before? Didn’t we turn up this rite of passage many a time?
Amiable performances and a gentle, generous chemistry between Walters and Grint make the ride pleasant nonetheless.
It’s rather rich that Walters, who plays Ron Weasley’s mum, tries to save Grint’s Ben from his mother’s joyless ride.
Brock’s screenplay was long in coming, which often happens with the deeply personal. Like Ben, the writer-director is the son of a vicar and worked for Dame Peggy Ashcroft, the London theatrical legend.
Whether Evie is indeed a dame is questionable. But, with her bouts of Shakespearean verse and swings into imperious demands, she convinces us she should have been.
Evie’s house is crowded with memorabilia and more potent mementos. The cinematographer’s camera spies a wine bottle here, liquor bottles there, in Evie’s home. Yet, though she tipples, Brock leaves somewhat open the question of just how much her moods are fueled or mollified by drink. She is a character in the old-school sense.
Walters grabs hold of this role like there’s no tomorrow. Certainly there is for Walters, twice nominated for Academy Awards (for “Educating Rita” and “Billy Elliot”). Yet she’s right to reveal the fierce and the vulnerable in Evie.
When the improbable twosome hit the road for a misadventure in Edinburgh, life’s real lessons begin, naturally. (Yes, there will be one less virgin in the world.)
Aside from an over-the-top accident outside the Christmas pageant Laura has been devising, “Driving Lessons” doesn’t hug hairpin curves or put the pedal to the metal.
The movie has its destination plotted like the British version of an AAA TripTik, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun getting there.
“Driving Lessons” | ** 1/2 RATING
PG-13 for language, sexual content and some thematic material |1 hour, 36 minutes|RITE AND WRONG OF PASSAGE
|Written and directed by Jeremy Brock; photography by David Katznelson; starring Julie Walters, Rupert Grint, Laura Linney, Nicholas Farrell, and Oliver Milburn |Opens today at the Chez Artiste.
