Review of Don't Forget the Driver

It's going for a Detectorists vibe - quiet, pastoral, quintessentially English, the quirks and foibles of the island race. Unfortunately, lacking the brilliant and hilarious script of that work of genius, it just comes across as dreary and vacant, like an out of season seaside resort. I started to note the number of scenes where we see an empty screen, then something or someone - a disability scooter, a funeral, a character - travels, painstakingly slowly, across the screen from left to right. This is a director imagining painterly scenes in his head, setting the mood of quiet introspection. Or maybe it's just boring, tedious and repetitive. The daughter - she's mixed race! She has a cross-dressing friend! She's feisty! Is a two dimensional "yoof" character. Jones' Australian accent is dreadful, and the people the eponymous driver carries on his coach are casting-central stereotypes (Japanese tourists! Do they have cameras? Guess...) So five stars? Well, the immigration issue is interesting and refreshing, Jones (English version) is always good value, and you ARE drawn back to see what happens. If they had left out the lashings of English quirkiness and the pretentious presentation, it could have been so much better.