Driving Lessons

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

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.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

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.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

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.

Variety Ronnie Scheib

Basically conservative yet titillatingly "eccentric" British laffer could succeed in the "Full Monty" import slot.

Village Voice Luke Y. Thompson

The sentiment's a bit thick sometimes, but Walters remains sharp, and is sure to inspire drag queens everywhere.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Linney's character is written as a one-dimensional monster whose selfish cruelty is beyond redemption and, ultimately, belief.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

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.

New York Post Kyle Smith

The mild British wackiness is more droll than funny, but the movie is a pleasant cup of tea.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

For all its treacly excesses of the post- "Full Monty" era, British comedy hasn't entirely lost its teeth yet.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Despite its slight and vaguely silly premise, Driving Lessons turns out to be sweet, never cloying, and amusing in an understated British way.

Los Angeles Times Gene Seymour

Driving Lessons follows the well-worn path laid down by other, better movies while making strained, ludicrous things happen toward the end.

The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden

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.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

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.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

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.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

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.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

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.

Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirshling

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.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

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.