When BIG BROTHER debuted on CBS in the summer of 2000, it was promoted as a social experiment that eliminated the stresses of work and family and forced a small group of people to deal with each other by being locked in house for close to three months. The show was on six nights a week, and a professional therapist was employed to watch the houseguests carefully to gauge their mental state as they forged their way through this new, mini-society. After about three weeks of this, I’m pretty sure not even the houseguests’ immediate families were still watching. Everybody hated it. So, the network tinkered and made changes. Each season the show evolved. Mostly, they made it racier.
This season, there isn’t one person with a gray hair. I’m sure every guy at the BIG BROTHER auditions is asked to take off his shirt. What is that, hair? Flab? I’m sorry, PIRATE MASTER auditions are down the hall. Next! The show is now for those of us who can’t get enough of the REAL WORLD/ROAD RULES CHALLENGE; it is tight-bodied meatheads looking to stab one another in the back as quickly as possible. For the life of me, I can’t explain it, but every summer I watch this dumb show.
DRIVING LESSONS falls into a familiar-yet-unnameable category of independent drama. Well, it was unnamable until a friend of mine — a fellow film buff — came up with a great label for the genre: “Commonwealth dramedy.” It’s usually a British film (hence the Commonwealth part) that generally centers on a somewhat odd, yet real, scenario with eccentric characters. That, my friends, is DRIVING LESSONS in a nutshell.
A coming-of-age story in the vein of HAROLD AND MAUDE (without the sexual tension), DRIVING LESSONS is about a young man named Ben (Rupert Grint) who’s been tucked quite securely under his mother’s (Laura Linney) wing for far too long. When she persuades him to find a job, Ben begins working for a retired actress named Evie (played brilliantly by Julie Walters).
I’m not going to lie; I wanted to see this movie because I love Rupert Grint. He’s always stood out as my favorite in the HARRY POTTER series, and I am delighted to say he doesn’t disappoint in DRIVING LESSONS. Grint plays Ben with so much perfected awkwardness that I found myself urging someone to give the kid a good shake to loosen him up. Walters’ zany Evie is the perfect balance to his character.