Driving Lessons 2013

Ben Marshall is a seventeen-year-old with a gentle sensibility who grows up under the care of his father, Robert, a vicar obsessed with birds, and his mother Laura, Mirto Alikaki, a woman whose charitable deeds and devout faith mask a controlling streak that keeps Ben isolated from peers and even basic freedoms like a mobile phone. Her firm grip extends to steering Ben’s life around her own needs, including a driven, clandestine romance with Peter, a young curate who plays Jesus in the church pageant she directs. The tension between warmth and domination threads through Ben’s days, shaping his wishes and his self-worth.

As Ben searches for a bit of ordinary teenage independence, Laura’s pressure cooker environment worsens. She refuses to let him join friends or travel freely, and she uses his driving lessons to ferry him around while maintaining her affair, leaving Ben feeling trapped and unseen. He secretly nourishes a quiet crush on Sarah, a girl from church, and reads her his poems, only to be met with rejection, intensifying his sense of distance from the world around him.

To earn money and perhaps claim a sliver of autonomy, Ben answers a characterful invitation from Dame Evie Walton, an alcoholic, classically trained actress who has fallen on hard times and hasn’t worked in years. Evie hires Ben to be a companion in the house and to drive her to appointments, and an immediate bond forms between them. Evie’s warmth and humor offer Ben a glimpse of a different kind of companionship and respect, one he has rarely felt at home.

A pivotal drive in the countryside becomes a turning point. Laura, opposed to a camping trip with Evie, instead takes a long road trip to a country setting. In a moment that feels almost fated, they find a secluded campsite; Laura coyly swallows the car key, signaling a break from control, while Ben imagines a possibility of agency he hasn’t allowed himself to consider. The morning brings a plan to attend the Edinburgh International Book Festival, where Laura has been invited to read poetry, and Ben experiences his first sexual encounter with Bryony, one of the event’s organizers. It’s a moment of awakening that reveals Ben’s capacity to claim responsibility and to stand up for himself, even if the road ahead is uncertain.

Back home, Laura interrogates Ben about Evie, convinced she has somehow corrupted him. Evie visits, but Laura rebuffs her, and a clash brews beneath the surface. In a moment of rebellion, Ben slips away from the pageant and cycles to Evie’s house, where the two friends find reconciliation and renewed trust.

Evie then arrives at the Pageant, and, in a dramatic turn, she appears to embody God, captivating the crowd and inviting Ben to join her in the car park. Laura pursues them, attempting to weaponize scripture once more, but Ben stands firm and tells her to leave. The confrontation takes a cruel twist when Laura is struck by a vehicle operated by Mr. Fincham, a patient whose mind has deteriorated in troubling ways. In the hospital bed, Laura returns with a startling assertion: a near-death experience has branded her a prophet, and she declares that God wants her to divorce Robert and run away with Peter, who has since been fired by the Bishop; Peter eventually takes Laura to Cornwall to convalesce.

Ben’s disillusion with the melodrama around him intensifies as Sarah’s condescending sarcasm about fate and divine will presses on him. He finally voices his own anger with a blunt, explicit retort: > fuck off. On Evie’s counsel, he buys a tent and moves to the back garden, a personal frontier where he can think more clearly about his future. Robert tries to reach out, but Ben insists that it was Laura who should have asked for a divorce, not him. In a revealing moment, Robert discloses that he did ask for divorce but chose to stay faithful, loving his wife despite the turmoil. This confession helps Ben understand the complexity of love, fidelity, and safety within a family.

As the family chaos gradually quiets, Ben reconnects with Evie, who sees potential and warmth in him. He reveals his decision to move to Edinburgh to study English, seeking a university path that could finally give him space to grow. Evie offers quiet pride and a touch of melancholy, happy for his progress yet saddened that their daily rhythm will change. Ben reads Evie a final poem, thanking her for the friendship that sustained him, and Evie responds with a gentle compliment, encouraging him to return whenever he’s home from college.

The film closes with Ben stepping into a new chapter. He walks through a park on his way home to begin packing for Edinburgh, a symbol of his newfound sense of possibility and distance from the oppressive grip of the past.