"Driving Lessons" is a difficult film for me to review. After all, I liked parts of it, though when seen as a whole, it left me a bit flat. Part of it might have been the way they portrayed the hyper-religious family. Part of it might have been because the film seemed quite incomplete when it came to the relationship between the two protagonists. All I know is that I neither liked nor disliked the movie.
Rupert Grint of "Harry Potter" fame stars as Ben, a very emotionally constricted teen who has an overbearing and hyper-religious mother (Laura Linney). She insists he get a summer job....and his job turns out to be for a down and out actress (Julie Walters) who is so completely unlike Ben's mother or the rest of his family.
What all this means by the end of the film, I really don't quite know. The ending was strange and felt incomplete. The acting was sometimes good (Walters was very good) but Grint went through most of the film as if he was uncomfortable in front of the camera...which we know he isn't. I assume this is the direction given to him. All I know is that the film seemed to be filled with caricatures...not real people. I liked parts but taken as a whole...it just felt like something was missing.
Rupert Grint of "Harry Potter" fame stars as Ben, a very emotionally constricted teen who has an overbearing and hyper-religious mother (Laura Linney). She insists he get a summer job....and his job turns out to be for a down and out actress (Julie Walters) who is so completely unlike Ben's mother or the rest of his family.
What all this means by the end of the film, I really don't quite know. The ending was strange and felt incomplete. The acting was sometimes good (Walters was very good) but Grint went through most of the film as if he was uncomfortable in front of the camera...which we know he isn't. I assume this is the direction given to him. All I know is that the film seemed to be filled with caricatures...not real people. I liked parts but taken as a whole...it just felt like something was missing.