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Driving Lessons
Metascore
56 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 19 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 19
  3. Negative: 0 out of 19
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  1. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Ruthe Stein
    75
    With the aid of a charmingly offbeat story and a jolly good dialect coach, the stars leave you thinking, well done. Their spirited performances help cover up glaring holes in the plot.
  2. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Bill White
    75
    Driving Lessons was written by director Jeremy Brock as a vehicle for Grint and Walters, who appeared together in the Harry Potter movies. They make a terrific screen couple. Walters is alternately zany and poignant, with Grint the perfect foil, a bemused, confused innocent who only wants to do good.
  3. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Chuck Wilson
    70
    While Driving Lessons' writer-director, Jeremy Brock, sticks to the all-too-familiar template of such tales, he's given Walters her best role since "Educating Rita." Hamming it up with the precision of a master, she makes this somewhat plodding film a pleasure, as does young Grint.
  4. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Luke Y. Thompson
    70
    The sentiment's a bit thick sometimes, but Walters remains sharp, and is sure to inspire drag queens everywhere.
  5. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    70
    The screwball aging diva genre isn't the only formula guiding this stubbornly old-fashioned movie. Driving Lessons belongs to the silly feel-good mode of "The Full Monty," "Calendar Girls," "Billy Elliot," "Kinky Boots" and dozens of other celebrations of Britons defying convention to become "free," whatever that means.
  6. Variety
    Reviewed by: Ronnie Scheib
    70
    Basically conservative yet titillatingly "eccentric" British laffer could succeed in the "Full Monty" import slot.
  7. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Connie Ogle
    63
    Despite its slight and vaguely silly premise, Driving Lessons turns out to be sweet, never cloying, and amusing in an understated British way.
  8. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    63
    Linney hits a single note for her uptight character, while Walters travels the scale indiscriminately. Her outsized eccentric darts from amusing to grating. Only Grint is just right, as the boy they, and the film, can't do without.
  9. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    63
    The mild British wackiness is more droll than funny, but the movie is a pleasant cup of tea.
  10. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    63
    Linney's character is written as a one-dimensional monster whose selfish cruelty is beyond redemption and, ultimately, belief.
  11. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    63
    For all its treacly excesses of the post- "Full Monty" era, British comedy hasn't entirely lost its teeth yet.
  12. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Sheri Linden
    60
    Aiming for wacky and heartwarming, the film is, at its sporadic best, a mildly diverting coming-of-age story. At its worst, it feels forced.
  13. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Gene Seymour
    60
    Driving Lessons follows the well-worn path laid down by other, better movies while making strained, ludicrous things happen toward the end.
  14. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    50
    Everybody in the movie is so tightly wound that Walters seems a model of actorly limberness. She cuts through the movie with speed and mannish, zany wit.
  15. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    50
    This coming-of-age movie, is a clumsy contraption, but it's nice to see Rupert Grint coming out from under that colorful thatch, and coming, not a moment too soon, into an appealing pre-maturity.
    All this critic's reviews
  16. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    50
    There is but one reason to sign up for Driving Lessons: to watch Rupert Grint -- Harry Potter's redheaded pal Ron Weasley -- squaring off with Julie Walters, Queen of the English Scenery Chewers.
  17. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Gregory Kirshling
    42
    Linney is too sensitive and capable an actress to play a stock villain like this. That everyone in the movie dislikes her makes you dislike everyone in the movie.
  18. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: M. E. Russell
    42
    Grint's role is larger and more "mature" than we've seen from him. During his adventures, Ben is seduced by a Scottish lit-festival flack (Michelle Duncan). But in some ways, his work is more limited here than it is in the "Potter" films. I have no idea why so many people consider Ben worth fighting for, or over.
  19. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Steve Davis
    40
    Because screenwriter-director Brock fails to create a moving relationship between its mentor and student in life's lessons, the film hardly resonates five minutes after it's over.
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.7 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 12 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 7
  3. Negative: 1 out of 7
  1. SydneyR.
    9
    In about the first third of the movie, Grint's character has very little lines. He portrays his emotions very well without words. But not in a very obvious and blunt way. It's over all a really cute story even if it's been done before.… Full Review »
  2. a
    5
    Average film - Grint stumbles awkwardly through the film while Walters shines.
  3. JohnM.
    1
    Good idea and good cast, but poorly implemented. Disjointed and frankly just not interesting to watch, comedically or dramatically
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