Driving Lessons (2006) - Synopsis

It’s another dreary school holiday for the downtrodden Ben (RUPERT GRINT). Seventeen years of living in an absurdly conservative and traditional household with his overbearing mother (LAURA LINNEY) and mild mannered vicar father (NICHOLAS FARRELL) have taken its toll on young Ben. While the other kids are out having fun, Ben spends these precious few weeks attending Bible classes, having driving lessons with his mother and helping out at a local old people’s home.

However, Ben’s summer is about to become a whole lot more exciting when he’s employed by retired actress Evie (JULIE WALTERS). Vulgar, dignified and childish all at once, she certainly is not the kind of person Ben expected when searching through the job listings in the stuffy parish magazine, “Hello Jesus”. Evie enters Ben’s life with a cataclysmic force, whisking him away on a series of adventures from camping, to performing Shakespeare in the garden, to attending the Edinburgh festival – where he meets Bryony (MICHELLE DUNCAN), a girl more his own age.

Evie’s unconventional and often downright bizarre behaviour challenges Ben’s beliefs, and forces him to confront the very idea of who he wants to be. Then, when it seems that his new found freedom is about to be taken away, Ben has to suddenly choose; should he continue to conform, or break out and live his life as his own man?

DRIVING LESSONS is a heartfelt, touching and positively hilarious look at the effect one delightfully eccentric older woman can have on a young man with a lot to learn…