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By Root 626 0

it’s Bridges, in a perfectly considered performance as a swaggering character, who commands the screen, and the lion’s share of our attention. He could have been portrayed as a monster, but the actor doesn’t make him a complete boor. In fact, the film derives its lighter moments from his rambunctious, often outrageous, behavior (as with his latest conquest, artsy neighbor Mimi Rogers).

If someone ever decides to award consolation Oscars, I hope they’ll put Jeff Bridges high on the list.

30. DRIVING LESSONS

(2006)

Directed by Jeremy Brock

Screenplay by Jeremy Brock

Actors:

JULIE WALTERS

RUPERT GRINT

LAURA LINNEY

NICHOLAS FARRELL

MICHELLE DUNCAN

JIM NORTON

TAMSIN EGERTON

OLIVER MILBURN

JIM NORTON

By and large, Americans don’t like foreign-made films, even those in the English language. Some of that resistance may be melting away in the age of Harry Potter, since those extraordinarily successful movies feature many of the UK’s finest actors. Driving Lessons stars two faces familiar to Potter fans: Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley, and the wonderful Julie Walters, who plays Ron’s mother in the Potter movies.

Walters made her mark on American moviegoers in a star-making part opposite Michael Caine in Educating Rita (1983) and has maintained a high-profile career on both sides of the Atlantic ever since, including an Oscar-nominated turn as the dancing teacher in Billy Elliot and a costarring role in the pop musical Mamma Mia! as one of Meryl Streep’s singing pals.

In Driving Lessons, Walters plays a lonely, aging actress named Eve Walton who hires a teenage boy to be her helper and companion. Grint plays Ben Marshall, a sixteen-year-old trying desperately to break free from his iron-willed mother and an enervating home life. He needs the job, but has no idea what he’s in for. Laura Linney affects a British accent to play Grint’s mother, who’s a religious zealot and a hypocrite, which drives her husband, a mild-mannered minister, to distraction.

Eve takes a theatrical approach to almost everything in life, and introduces the sheltered teenager to a world in which his poetic nature can blossom. Despite their age difference, these two characters create a strong bond of friendship—and need.

Driving Lessons is a real charmer, but it’s never cute or precious. It has the ability to take us from comedy to drama and back again without ever sounding a false note—all the more impressive because it marks the directing debut of screenwriter Jeremy Brock. His past work includes Mrs. Brown with Judi Dench, Charlotte Gray, and The Last King of Scotland, for which he shares credit with Peter Morgan. When I heard him speak after a showing of this film, he was self-effacing about what he’d accomplished, admitted that a great deal of the story was based on his own life (including the key characteristics of his parents and the aging actress), and gave the bulk of the credit for the movie’s success to his actors. I wouldn’t entirely disagree, but like so many good movies, this one is built on a strong foundation: truth. Brock’s real-life experiences gave him the best possible material to work with.

31. DUCK SEASON

(2004)

Directed by Fernando Eimbcke

Screenplay by Fernando Eimbcke and Paula Markovitch

Actors:

ENRIQUE ARREOLA

DIEGO CATAÑO

DANIEL MIRANDA

DANNY PEREA

CAROLINA POLITI

A low-key comedy without stars in it would normally face an uphill climb in American theaters. Duck Season is Mexican, so it never stood a chance. It swept virtually every award there was to give in its native country (even from MTV Mexico) and played at film festivals around the world. It even won the Grand Jury Prize at the AFI Fest in Los Angeles, but it never made the impression it should have here in the United States.

This modest black-and-white film probably wouldn’t appeal to hardcore fans of Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell movies even if it were in English. It plays like a cross between Napoleon Dynamite and a Jacques Tati vehicle. It’s unpretentious and takes time building its comic ingredients. It’s also incredibly engaging