Driving Lessons

Driving Lessons
September 4, 2006
UK Film Council etc.
Comedy, Drama
DVD
C

While this has some good performances and lovely scenery (particularly in Scotland), it's hampered by Jeremy Brock's writing and direction, which manage to be both cliched and nonsensical.  The film still has some curiosity value as the movie that Rupert Grint and Julie Walters made where they weren't playing Ron Weasley and his mum.  American Laura Linney does a fine job as the mother here, although it's hard to know how to take her or most of the other characters.  And I wish Grint, as Ben, wasn't so passive through most of the movie.  For what it's worth, more enjoyable than Grint's Wild Target (2010).

There are some other, more minor, Harry Potter connections.  Jim Norton, who plays Mr. Fincham, was Mr. Mason in Chamber of Secrets.  Samuel Gaukroger, who's a Child at Church, would be in Order of the Phoenix as a Hogwarts Student, while Rose Keegan, who's Emma Pagent here, would be Red Haired Witch in Deathly Hallows, Part I.

Kinsey

Kinsey
November 12, 2004
Fox etc.
Drama, Historical
VHS (the last in my movie collection)
B-

While I think  Liam Neeson, as the title character, and Laura Linney, as Clara "Mac" McMillen Kinsey, give great performances here, aging convincingly from their 20s into their 50s or 60s, this movie is too depressing (especially in the second half) for me to give it a higher grade.  Furthermore, while the passage of time (not just the characters aging, but various period details) is well done, there is a feeling that the movie tries to take on too much, tries to condense one complex life, and the lives related to it, into two hours.  Still, I have never seen a Hollywood film address such issues as bisexuality and polyamory somewhat sympathetically.  On the other hand, the film is appropriately clinical in its approach to sex, so even the nudity and simulated sex acts are not particularly arousing.  I actually thought the sexiest moment is when Alfred and Mac try not to let his parents overhear them being silly in bed.

Nearly 30 years after The Big Bus, Lynn Redgrave is almost unrecognizable in the small but pivotal role of Final Interview Subject.  And Don Sparks, the Prince in 1978's Fairy Tales, is somewhat recognizable as the Middle-Aged Businessman.  Kate Jennings Grant, who was Kennedy in The Object of My Affection, is Marjorie Hartford here.  Joe Badalucco, who was Construction Foreman in Two Weeks Notice, is Radio Repairman here.  Heather Goldenhersh was Sheila in School of Rock and is Martha Pomeroy here.

Not the usual triangle