Driving Lessons
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.44 You Save: $12.55 (84%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.48 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Driving Lessons
Movie Review: License revoked
Summary: 2 Stars
Seventeen-year old Ben (Rupert Grint) is terribly shy and has withdrawn from his overbearing mother (Laura Linney) and reclusive father. He goes to work for a washed-up, eccentric actress (Julie Walters) and gets caught up in her world when she takes him on a trip that promises some life-changing lessons for both of them.
This coming-of-age story misses the mark because I didn't believe the boy would change because of anything that happened. He does go through some overly-dramatic events with a loud and self-centered old woman, but he remains a bystander, and a baffled one at that. The movie has an amateurish feel to it despite the talented Walters and Linney; they both resort to shouting and overacting and come across as unsympathetic women who don't see the error of their ways. Unfortunately, Rupert Grint ("Ron" in the Harry Potter movies) doesn't show much range as an actor; he gives a sluggish, one-note performance. The script doesn't touch the heart and I didn't care about any of the characters. Disappointing.
Movie Review: An Accident
Summary: 2 Stars
I had great expectations for this movie but it did not deliver. It's about the relationship that develops between a sheltered, over-religionized teenager, Ben who goes to work for over-medicated, hyper-eccentric washed-up actress Evie.
The whole plot is predictable. It's obvious from the start that Ben's home life is tottering from the weight of over-religion. You see that coming form the first few scenes and can predict almost how it will end up and it ends up like you imagine. Evie's neediness borders on paralysis and it's painful to watch. Julie Walters plays a good turn as Evie but with a lack of charismatic acting by fellow lead Rupert Grint, it falls on Julie Walters and she just couldn't carry the movie alone.
Movie Review: So what is the point besides bashing Christians?
Summary: 1 Stars
First of all, I can handle movies that show negative side to a religious spirit, and the need of being more human and free in a case you are not. The idea of this movie kinda starts off like this, but to be quite honest, it bored me terrebly for few reasons. The young man has a mother who is always a bit too worried for him. She seems not to like her husband very much who is the pastor in their church. Okay, I can handle that, but I'm not sure about watching the movie for an hour and still waiting for it to take off. So the boy meets this old actrees lady who curses a lot, talks loud in public, she takes him far away from home and doesn't let him contact his family to let them know he's okay. Is that the kind of lesson she was teaching him? I don't care how annoying the mother might be, letting parents know where their children are is not just a Christian thing, at least I would assume it's not... Anyway, after they end up in some hotel the boy sleeps with some girl and so the story goes on to him trying out alchohol and dance clubs... Honestly, I don't mind none of that, but you gotta be kidding me if that's the kind of lessons the lady was trying to teach him. The movie goes on with his mother being hit by a car as if this whole time the audience just waited for that to happen. No, not really, even though the mother was kind of annoying, she seemed to me like yet another human being who is not perfect... If his mother is christian, that doesn't mean she cannot have her own mistakes or worry too much for her kid, or have problems with her husband. I wasn't sure what the religion had to do with any of the things that the movie put this boy through... Taste of sin? I don't think now days it's that hard to taste sin... To make an extremely boring movie about it with passion of bashing christian families seems like a thing for loosers who don't have a life. Even though I come from a christian family, and have a lot of friends who are christians, a behavior characterized by the boy's parents is strange news to me personally. A rather naive and empty idea. There are hundreds of happy families and not so happy regardless of which religion or phelosophy. Why do people praise this movie so much? Not sure, but watch it I guess for yourself to have your own opinnion. Peace.Movie Review: Easy to walk away from...
Summary: 1 Stars
Driving Lessons was a mess. It was supposed to be a "coming of age" film, in which a shy, repressed young man, Ben, discovers his sexuality, his independence, and his spirit through the influence of an eccentric, former actress entering her twilight years. The idea was cute, but the execution was a mish-mash of half-baked ideas that pulled the film in several opposing directions. Was this a drama? A comedy? Heartfelt family film? (Not with all those f-words...) The writer clearly couldn't choose a genre, or a consistent style. The characters were two-dimensional, the soundtrack inappropriate (what was with the Scottish fusion?), and the plot holes too large to ignore. (What work did Ben actually do for Evie?) Rupert Grint did a convincing impersonation of a deer caught in headlights, and Julie Walters pulled off more than her fair share of tantrums, but even those riveting performances couldn't keep me on the couch. As the story--or lack thereof--slowly unfolded, I found every possible excuse for wandering away...snacks, something to drink, hmmm dishes need to be washed, got to finish writing that definitive history of the Babylonian Empire... (I will say this for Driving Lessons: I got a lot accomplished.)