In a bizarre act of charity, Laura has also brought into the house a cross-dressing lunatic named Fincham (Jim Norton), who ran over his wife. The character, who develops an obsession with wearing Laura's clothes, is strictly a plot device, reserved for one act of rebellion near the end of the movie.
It is through Evie that Ben learns to break his mother's rules. Although he hasn't earned a driver's license, Evie insists he be her chauffeur. Violating Laura's curfew, he takes Evie camping and later shepherds her to a literary festival in Edinburgh. Their relationship metamorphoses from embattled to mutually nurturing.
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. Since any connections between Driving Lessons and the real world are tangential at best, it's a faux liberation: the easiest kind.
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