Driving Lessons (2007)

This is the first DVD review for the blog, and I'm very excited! I'm reviewing the movie Driving Lessons (2007), starring Rupert Grint, Julia Walters, and Laura Linney.

This is a British film set in England and Scotland. Two neurotic women--Walters, a retired actress, and Linney, the boy's mother--quite literally fight for a boy's (Grint) soul one summer as he grows into adulthood. Both women admittedly each have a screw loose in their heads. The boy's mother wants him to remain a boy--someone over whom she has complete control, who is basically at her beck and call. While the actress depends upon the boy for friendship and companionship, ultimately she does indeed have his best interests at heart as she provides the encouragement and support for him to break from his mother and become a living, thinking being in his own right who will stand up for himself and his own best interests. Bizarre situations, neurotic dialogue, and hilarity ensue.

The driving lessons of the title refers to the fact that at the beginnning of the film, the boy is learning to drive and pass his driver's license exam, and this is, quite hilariously, going terribly for him. Over the course of the film, as he edges closer and closer to adulthood, he learns how to drive, and he eventually becomes a fairly decent driver by the end of the film. His triumph in his 'driving lessons' coincides with his excruciating, yet triumphant, emergence into manhood. Therefore, the driving lessons becomes a metaphor for coming of age in the film.

The film also has a wonderful soundtrack. Driving Lessons can be requested from the Annville Free Library for those wishing to check out this movie.

--reviewed by Ms. Angie