Julie Walters’ appeal drives ‘Driving Lessons’

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, December 7, 2006

Two regulars from the “Harry Potter” franchise indulge in a much smaller side project with “Driving Lessons,” one of those little feel-good British comedies that rarely feel good.

The stars are Rupert Grint, the redheaded kid who plays sidekick Ron Weasley in the “Potter” films, and Julie Walters, the veteran trouper who plays Ron’s mother in the “Potter” films. In “Driving Lessons,” Grint plays a shy teenager named Ben, given to writing poetry for girls he can’t get up the nerve to approach.

He takes a summer job as an assistant to a semi-famous actress named Evie Walton (Walters), who long ago performed the classics but is best known for a role on a silly TV soap opera. He runs errands for her, and occasionally picks her up off the floor after she’s had too much vodka in the afternoon.

Evie is brassy and impulsive and in all ways the opposite of Ben’s mother (Laura Linney), a religious zealot with a minimal sense of fun. As appalled as Ben is by Evie’s outrageous behavior, he can’t help but be enthralled by her.

By the time Evie essentially kidnaps Ben for an overnight camping trip, she’s lured him over to her side of life. If you’ve seen “Harold and Maude,” you know the deal.

An epic road trip to Edinburgh, where Evie is supposed to give a poetry reading, is the final round in the education of young Ben, especially when he meets a cute publicist who thinks he’s older than 17.

“Driving Lessons” is written and directed by Jeremy Brock (“Mrs. Brown”), who apparently based the script on his own teenage experience with a grande-dame actress. Autobiographical or not, he can’t nudge the material out of the cutesy genre of “Calendar Girls” (in which Walters appeared) or “Kinky Boots.”

Rupert Grint has a very good deadpan, which he uses to comic effect whether playing a tree in a church play or listening to his father’s bird calls. He will surely have a career beyond the “Harry Potter” movies.

If you’re a Julie Walters fan, you will get some yoks out of her performance, which is one of her juiciest since “Educating Rita.” Walters’ comedy has sometimes been a little too much for movies – she’s probably a great stage comic – but here her style fits the grandiose character. The film isn’t much, but she nails it.

Julie Walters and Rupert Grint in “Driving Lessons.”