ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

SHE MAY NOT like the compliment, but Julie Walters has reached the stage where she is considered a national treasure. She is one of our most beloved performers, and her talents seem to know no bounds; she is publishing her first novel this autumn.

She is in fine fettle in ‘Driving Lessons’, squeezing humour and poignancy from a tailor-made role as a grande dame of the English theatre. It is a stellar performance in a lightweight film that needs all the charm she can give it.

Best known as the screenwriter of ‘Mrs Brown’, Jeremy Brock makes his directorial debut with a tale loosely based on events from his own life. Rupert Grint (‘Harry Potter’) stars as Ben, a sullen seventeen year-old kept under the thumb of his hypocritical, overbearing mother (Laura Linney).

One Summer he goes to work for eccentric old actress Evie (Walters), an experience that teaches him to grab life, think for himself and finally assert his independence.

Grint is very good at conveying the awkwardness of his character, but the film belongs to Walters as the foul-mouthed old trouper who makes it her mission in life to drag him out of his shell.

Eventually, she even drags Ben to an engagement at the Edinburgh International Festival, and his life is never quite the same again.

‘Driving Lessons’ is very entertaining, but despite its basis in fact, it never really rings true. The dragon lady mother is poorly written, and the more farcical elements feel more in keeping with a television sitcom. Still, the performances are five-star even if the film is more like a three-star effort.

Selected nationwide release
Director: Jeremy Brock
Stars: Julie Walters, Rupert Grint, Laura Linney, Nicholas Farrell, Michelle Duncan
Screenwriter: Jeremy Brock
Certificate: 15
Running time: 98 mins
Country: UK
Year: 2006

© Allan Hunter, 2006