Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Ally S There were certain parts and pieces in the movie "Driving Lessons" that I was not thrilled by, but overall, I did enjoy this movie. The parts of the movie that intrigued me the most were the excellent actors and actresses, the random humor, and the beautiful scenery. I also enjoyed the overall plot and idea of this movie. I really liked how perfectly each actor or actress matched his or her part. Rupert Grint did a wonderful job playing his character, Ben. I thought Grint fit the image of the "awkward teenager" and did a great job expressing how each awkward teenager feels about certain situations. For example, when Ben senses that something between his parents is not quite right, he shuts down and keeps to himself. I think this represents how most teenage boys are. Grint also showed his acting skills when Ben was sharing his love poem to Sara. He showed how boys this age are a little unsure of themselves and how to talk to girls. Laura Linney, who played Ben's mother, also did an exceptional job portraying the stereotypical "controlling mom". She did this by acting as if she controlled the house and everything that goes on in it. She bosses Ben around to do things for her, like helping out at the church and even getting her some groceries. She also shows this controlling mom figure by lying and shutting the door on Evie, the woman who Ben has been keeping company. I think Linney was a great choice for the unpleasant mother of Ben role. The random spurts of humor in "Driving Lessons" were another entertaining part that grabbed my attention. Evie, played by Julie Walters, is the somewhat kooky older lady that Ben keeps company. She plays the most humorous role in this film with her funny yet a little inappropriate comments. I think the director, Jeremy Brock, made a smart move when adding Evie's funny sayings throughout the movie. The humor was unusual and not similar to other comedy movies, which is why I enjoyed it. For example, when Evie swallowed the car key and told Ben "..the key will be back with us in the morning! I'm as regular as clock work." was humorous and grabbed my attention. Lastly, the overall idea and plot was something I liked throughout this movie. I loved the fact that they shot this film in England because it made the scenery like something I have never seen before. I also thought that the plot of the movie was very interesting and kept me wanting for more after each scene. I was very intrigued to see how Ben was going to be after taking care of Evie. I thought it was a good idea to incorporate the encounter of Evie and Laura, because they were the two opposites throughout the film. I also liked how Ben driving Evie everywhere related back to the beginning of the story, which was about his driving lessons.

tjeagles2013 The 2006 movie Driving Lessons, directed by Jeremy Brock, overall is decent. It's not one of my favorite movies by any means but the comedy aspects are good. Ben's mom controlled every aspect of his life but after he started working for her, he started to live life. Dame Evie gave Ben the push to be a great individual, while maintaining a small amount of comedy, and after he quit working for her he started college, moved out, and started working at a library. Some key comedy aspects are Ben's driving abilities, Dame Evie Waltens as the crazy old woman, and the actions of Mr. Fincham.His abilities to navigate the roadways are hysterical because he crashes the car when he is supposed to make an emergency stop when the instructor claps his hands. Dame Evie is also a main part of the comedy because she swears like a sailor, she swallowed the key to the car when they (her and Ben), the amount of wine she drinks and her requests when she is drunk. The best part of the movie, in my eyes, would be when Mr. Fincham runs over Laura (Ben's mom) at the end of the movie. She controlled Ben the entire time like he was her little hand puppet and he changed, between him getting fed up with the treatment and what the Dame was telling him, to become more "manly" and stood up for himself against his mom. One may think that the title reflects his driving abilities, however, it reflects that Ben is turning his life around. This is the best example to show that been was turning his life around to live a better, freer life. Even though the movie was decent, it had some life lessons and colorful symbolism. Starting with the symbolism, when his employer (Dame Evie) was telling Ben that "A week seems like a year, I count each moment as a blessing." Shortly after she said this to Ben, he looked up at the starry sky and saw the true beauty of the world and realized that he was taking a life changing adventure. He would not be the same after this trip.The theme was indirectly told and was stemmed from a lie, yet both of the symbolisms point to this theme as a possible strong theme. Dame Evie told Ben that she was dying from breast cancer and could die between a week and a year from now. She was depicting, by her actions, that you should live life to the fullest because you don't know how long you have left to live. He took this to heart and this was shown by the night looking at the stars, the first time he spent the night with a girl, and definitely was shown at the end of the movie when he talked to Evie for the last time telling her that he moved out of the house, got a good paying job and is going to school to be more than someone's foot and hand (his mother's).This was all construed together by the final song of the movie, "Auld Lang Syne". The basic meaning is that the past is the past and live for the future because it can be whatever you want it to be. That is also why it is the song millions chant at the New Year celebrations. The New Year acts like the start of a new life and he is starting this new life.

Parker Schings If I were sick, too tired to get out of bed and grab a DVD, and stumbled upon Driving Lessons on TV at three in the afternoon on a weekday, I would watch it. Other than that I would never watch that movie under any circumstances ever. The movie opened with various scenes of what seemed to be nonsense and did not seem to have a major plot at any time of the movie.It sort of had a Napoleon Dynamite feel to it (great movie). This could be appealing to someone that is willing to stare at a screen blankly for an hour and 40 minutes with an occasional laugh. The most entertaining scene of the movie comes late when Ben, the main character of the story, tells his big crush, Sarah, off. After an awkward rejection early in the movie he gains some confidence during some character development, and gains the courage to promptly tells her to, "f*** off." Which is interesting because she was trying to tell him to look to God to make him feel better, which is what his mom had been doing the entire movie in a more twisted way. There is also the slightly over-the-top, overbearing, and dominating mother, Laura, that controls everyone around her. She turned me off from the movie because she is just another stereotypical annoying Christian mother that tells everyone they are defying God whenever they would do something she did not want. The most extreme example is when Ben tries to run off with his friend and retired actress, Evie, and his mother tells him that if he continues to leave her ridiculous play, he would be turning his back on God. She also tries to get Ben to get a job so he can give his money to a homeless man, that lives in their home, who had run over his previous wife, which is total crap. That was the type of scene where you feel every teenager cringe at the sound of that request. There was also their supposedly great scene where it was Ben and Evie in a camping equipment store which showed various scenes of them goofing around together. The only though in my head was that this has been done many times before, and done much better at that. One thing I noticed was all of the random camera shots of Ben's mom shooting men around the church seductive looks throughout the movie, making me think that she may be having an affair. I was almost excited to see that encounter when the dad found out and confronted the mom about it. No such luck was found, it was just another random thing that the producer included to confuse me and tease me into thinking something interesting was going to happen. So all in all I give this movie a solid D+.

kiwitonita What a dreadful load a garbage. Luckily we paid no money to borrow the DVD so were able to skip repeatedly through this pitiful excuse without feeling too ripped off. The DVD cover said Hilarious - hmmm, if dreadfully slow, profane, idiotic acting is Hilarious then so be it. Don't believe the clowns who pen the movie description.Truly a sad piece of junk. Maybe some people here are so bereft of decency they can spot humour in a foul mouthed old bag and a stupid family with an agonising no plot, no talent script. Oops, there's another string of foul language Ha Ha Ha! Astonishing it gets more than 1 star. I have looked at IMMD for years but never felt prompted to register until now in order to rate this trash as it deserves.