Maggie Smith never disappoints. She is such an amazing actress and continues to be in "The Lady in the Van." Such an interesting true story of a very odd woman, this film is very endearing. The chemistry between Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings is very enjoyable to watch. Their relationship had a sort of codependency between them that was really fueled by a real caring for each other for different reasons. Director Nicholas Hytner did a great job of portraying the comedy found in this story. And that is due to the great acting of Maggie Smith, whom I cannot say enough about. Her recent Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture- Comedy was well deserved and although she didn't take home the trophy, her performance is still one to be heavily applauded.
118 Reviews
Maggie Smith is Golden
blanche-229 September 2016
"Lady in the Van" from 2015 is the "mostly" true story of playwright Alan Bennett's relationship with a woman who lived in various vans parked in his driveway for fifteen years. Bennett here is played by Alex Jennings, and the lady, Miss Shepherd, Maggie Smith.
Miss Shepherd, who smells awful from not bathing, lives in a crowded van and moves it from place to place, staying until she's thrown out or until she hears music. When she's told to move or do something else, she yells, as only Maggie Smith can do, "I'm a sick woman! Dying possibly!" Alan finds it impossible to break from her, though he tries. She prays very fervently and one time tells him that she spoke to the Virgin Mary at the post office. When he asks if the van is insured, she says she doesn't need it, she's insured in heaven. "So what happens if you have an accident?" Alan asks. "Who pays? The Pope?"
Alan is gay, though his friends are always trying to fix him up with a woman. One day Miss Shepherd says, "All those people who come and go in the dark, I know who they are." "Oh, Jesus," he says under his breath. "They're Communists!" she hisses. "Otherwise they wouldn't come and go in the dark."
Miss Shepherd is a woman of mystery - Alan finally learns that she studied piano, speaks fluent French, and was a nun. She also at times is seen going to someone's house in the dead of night. A man opens the door and comes outside. And someone stops by her van from time to time, and she gives him money.
In the end, we learn who these people are, her story of the convent, the history of her piano-playing, why she prays all the time, and who the men are.
Alex Jennings is perfect as Bennett (who appears at the end of the movie). He has his voice down pat, and in the film, there are two Alans - the writer Alan and the observer Alan, who talk with one another throughout the film. It's Alan who lives in the real world who encourages the writer Alan to be helpful to Miss Shepherd.
I am so privileged to have seen Maggie Smith in "Lettice and Lovage," one of my greatest evenings in the theater, where I laughed until I cried. At the end of that play, she gets on the phone and does a serious, touching monologue. She does the same here. Instead of the crazy homeless lady with the plastic bags we see and laugh at and wonder about during the play, she does a monologue that tells us who she is, and about her pain, heartbreak, and disappointments. "Why did you choose to be homeless?" Alan asks. "I didn't choose," she insists. "It was chosen for me."
A wonderful film about an uptight, cold man and a disturbed religious bag lady - you won't soon forget it.
Miss Shepherd, who smells awful from not bathing, lives in a crowded van and moves it from place to place, staying until she's thrown out or until she hears music. When she's told to move or do something else, she yells, as only Maggie Smith can do, "I'm a sick woman! Dying possibly!" Alan finds it impossible to break from her, though he tries. She prays very fervently and one time tells him that she spoke to the Virgin Mary at the post office. When he asks if the van is insured, she says she doesn't need it, she's insured in heaven. "So what happens if you have an accident?" Alan asks. "Who pays? The Pope?"
Alan is gay, though his friends are always trying to fix him up with a woman. One day Miss Shepherd says, "All those people who come and go in the dark, I know who they are." "Oh, Jesus," he says under his breath. "They're Communists!" she hisses. "Otherwise they wouldn't come and go in the dark."
Miss Shepherd is a woman of mystery - Alan finally learns that she studied piano, speaks fluent French, and was a nun. She also at times is seen going to someone's house in the dead of night. A man opens the door and comes outside. And someone stops by her van from time to time, and she gives him money.
In the end, we learn who these people are, her story of the convent, the history of her piano-playing, why she prays all the time, and who the men are.
Alex Jennings is perfect as Bennett (who appears at the end of the movie). He has his voice down pat, and in the film, there are two Alans - the writer Alan and the observer Alan, who talk with one another throughout the film. It's Alan who lives in the real world who encourages the writer Alan to be helpful to Miss Shepherd.
I am so privileged to have seen Maggie Smith in "Lettice and Lovage," one of my greatest evenings in the theater, where I laughed until I cried. At the end of that play, she gets on the phone and does a serious, touching monologue. She does the same here. Instead of the crazy homeless lady with the plastic bags we see and laugh at and wonder about during the play, she does a monologue that tells us who she is, and about her pain, heartbreak, and disappointments. "Why did you choose to be homeless?" Alan asks. "I didn't choose," she insists. "It was chosen for me."
A wonderful film about an uptight, cold man and a disturbed religious bag lady - you won't soon forget it.
A third Oscar for Maggie? Very probable, I'd say.
MOscarbradley16 November 2015
Like all the best English comedies, the humor in "The Lady in the Van" is founded on character and in eccentricity but then we should expect nothing less from the pen of the great Alan Bennett. This is mostly a true story we are told and it's the story of a very eccentric lady and one, or is it two, quite eccentric men. The lady is Mary, or is it Margaret, Shepherd who might be considered homeless were it not for the van she lives in. The somewhat eccentric man is Bennett himself. I said two because in this case we get two Bennetts for the price of one, Alan the writer and Alan the householder and they are both played by Alex Jennings.
Miss Shepherd really existed and she's the lady who, at Bennett's request. moved her van from the street outside his house, where she had parked it, into his driveway. Initially she was due to stay a few months but ended up parking there for 15 years. Bennett turned the story of her stay first into a novella and then into a play and now, under the direction of Nicholas Hytner, into a film and a beautiful job he's made of it.
Of course, for the purpose of dramatic and comic effect Mr Bennett has taken liberties, adding bits here and there including a delightful phantasmagorical ending. He also surrounds himself and Miss Shepherd with a host of other characters, some almost as eccentric as they are. Recreating the part she played on stage Maggie Smith is magnificent in the title role. Of course, you could say Maggie has been playing variations of Jean Brodie for the past 45 years. It's easy to see Miss Brodie in the put-downs of the Dowager, Countess of Grantham had Jean been born into a different generation or class and it's not much of a step to see Miss Shepherd as an older, very much down-on-her-luck Jean Brodie. A third Oscar is certainly not out of the question.
Jennings, too, has Bennett off to a tee and there's lovely support from the likes of Frances De La Tour, Roger Allam and Deborah Findlay as sundry neighbors while the entire cast of Bennett's "The History Boys" manage to pop up in one form or another. If it feels slighter than some of Bennett's other offerings it may simply be because here he is writing about someone we would probably pass in the street without looking twice at. Of course, if on meeting Miss Shepherd in the street we knew what we know now, we might indeed give her a second or even a third glance; we might even invite her to move her van into our driveway. Slight? Not a bit of it.
Miss Shepherd really existed and she's the lady who, at Bennett's request. moved her van from the street outside his house, where she had parked it, into his driveway. Initially she was due to stay a few months but ended up parking there for 15 years. Bennett turned the story of her stay first into a novella and then into a play and now, under the direction of Nicholas Hytner, into a film and a beautiful job he's made of it.
Of course, for the purpose of dramatic and comic effect Mr Bennett has taken liberties, adding bits here and there including a delightful phantasmagorical ending. He also surrounds himself and Miss Shepherd with a host of other characters, some almost as eccentric as they are. Recreating the part she played on stage Maggie Smith is magnificent in the title role. Of course, you could say Maggie has been playing variations of Jean Brodie for the past 45 years. It's easy to see Miss Brodie in the put-downs of the Dowager, Countess of Grantham had Jean been born into a different generation or class and it's not much of a step to see Miss Shepherd as an older, very much down-on-her-luck Jean Brodie. A third Oscar is certainly not out of the question.
Jennings, too, has Bennett off to a tee and there's lovely support from the likes of Frances De La Tour, Roger Allam and Deborah Findlay as sundry neighbors while the entire cast of Bennett's "The History Boys" manage to pop up in one form or another. If it feels slighter than some of Bennett's other offerings it may simply be because here he is writing about someone we would probably pass in the street without looking twice at. Of course, if on meeting Miss Shepherd in the street we knew what we know now, we might indeed give her a second or even a third glance; we might even invite her to move her van into our driveway. Slight? Not a bit of it.
Watch where you step
ferguson-65 February 2016
Greetings again from the darkness. "There's air freshener behind the Virgin". That line should provide the necessary caution for you to be braced for just about anything to be said by any character in this latest from director Nicholas Hytner. Billed as "A mostly true story", it's actually more commentary on how we treat those less fortunate and how we use others for our own gain. That bleak message is cloaked here in humor and a wonderful performance from Dame Maggie Smith.
Alan Bennett is an author, playwright and screenwriter known for The History Boys and The Madness of King George (Oscar nominated for his script). He is also at the core of this story – every bit as much as Ms. Shepherd, the lady in the van. While living in upper crust Camden Town, Mr. Bennett offered to let Ms. Shepherd park her van in his driveway for a few weeks until she could make other arrangements. This van was also her home, and the years (as they are apt to do) came and went until this arrangement had lasted 15 years (1974-1989).
You might assume that Ms. Shepherd was an extremely appreciative "squatter", but in fact, she was quite a cantankerous and difficult woman, possibly/probably suffering from mental instability. Maggie Smith brings a humanity to the role that she had previously owned onstage and radio. She goes far deeper than the wise-cracking old lady role we have grown accustomed to seeing her play though her vicious dialogue delivery remains in prime form. Throughout the film, we assemble bits and pieces of Ms. Shepherd's background: an educated-French speaking musician-turned nun-former ambulance driver-who "possibly" won awards for her talents. She is also carrying a burden of guilt from a past tragic accident that keeps her in the confessional on a consistent basis.
Mr. Bennett is played by Alex Jennings (The Queen, 2006), and the film actually presents dual Bennetts – the one doing the writing, and the one doing the living. These two Bennetts are a virtual married couple – arguing over Ms. Shepherd, and jabbing each other with barbs aimed directly at known emotional weaknesses. The living Bennett claims to be so full of British timidity that he couldn't possibly confront the woman junking up his driveway. The writer Bennett takes the high road and claims he would rather write spy stories than focus his pen on the odorous, obnoxious transient living in his front yard. Of course, now that we have a play and movie, it's difficult to avoid viewing Mr. Bennett's actions as anything less than inspiration for his writing though the extended charitable actions cannot be minimized.
With director Hytner and writer Bennett reuniting, it's also interesting to note that more than a dozen actors from The History Boys make appearances here. The list includes James Corden, Frances de la Tour, and Dominic Cooper. Also in supporting roles are Roger Allam and Deborah Findlay (playing constantly irritated neighbors), Gwen Taylor as Bennett's dementia-stricken mother, Jim Broadbent as a blackmailing former cop, and Marion Bailey as a staffer at the abbey.
Filmed at the same house where the van was parked for so many years, the film is a reminder to us to exercise tolerance and charity in dealing with the poor. Even Bennett's grudgingly-offered assistance is a step above what would typically be expected. While we could feel a wide spectrum of emotions for the two main parties here, it's Ms. Shepherd's character who says "I didn't choose. I was chosen". We are left to interpret her words in a way that is either quite sad or accepting.
The film mostly avoids dime store sentimentality, and that's in large part due to Maggie Smith's performance. Few are as effective at frightening young kids or putting the elite in their place. The ending scene shows the real Alan Bennett cruising into the driveway on his bicycle just as the blue plaque honoring the lady in the van is displayed. We can be certain this gesture would not generate a "thank you" from her.
Alan Bennett is an author, playwright and screenwriter known for The History Boys and The Madness of King George (Oscar nominated for his script). He is also at the core of this story – every bit as much as Ms. Shepherd, the lady in the van. While living in upper crust Camden Town, Mr. Bennett offered to let Ms. Shepherd park her van in his driveway for a few weeks until she could make other arrangements. This van was also her home, and the years (as they are apt to do) came and went until this arrangement had lasted 15 years (1974-1989).
You might assume that Ms. Shepherd was an extremely appreciative "squatter", but in fact, she was quite a cantankerous and difficult woman, possibly/probably suffering from mental instability. Maggie Smith brings a humanity to the role that she had previously owned onstage and radio. She goes far deeper than the wise-cracking old lady role we have grown accustomed to seeing her play though her vicious dialogue delivery remains in prime form. Throughout the film, we assemble bits and pieces of Ms. Shepherd's background: an educated-French speaking musician-turned nun-former ambulance driver-who "possibly" won awards for her talents. She is also carrying a burden of guilt from a past tragic accident that keeps her in the confessional on a consistent basis.
Mr. Bennett is played by Alex Jennings (The Queen, 2006), and the film actually presents dual Bennetts – the one doing the writing, and the one doing the living. These two Bennetts are a virtual married couple – arguing over Ms. Shepherd, and jabbing each other with barbs aimed directly at known emotional weaknesses. The living Bennett claims to be so full of British timidity that he couldn't possibly confront the woman junking up his driveway. The writer Bennett takes the high road and claims he would rather write spy stories than focus his pen on the odorous, obnoxious transient living in his front yard. Of course, now that we have a play and movie, it's difficult to avoid viewing Mr. Bennett's actions as anything less than inspiration for his writing though the extended charitable actions cannot be minimized.
With director Hytner and writer Bennett reuniting, it's also interesting to note that more than a dozen actors from The History Boys make appearances here. The list includes James Corden, Frances de la Tour, and Dominic Cooper. Also in supporting roles are Roger Allam and Deborah Findlay (playing constantly irritated neighbors), Gwen Taylor as Bennett's dementia-stricken mother, Jim Broadbent as a blackmailing former cop, and Marion Bailey as a staffer at the abbey.
Filmed at the same house where the van was parked for so many years, the film is a reminder to us to exercise tolerance and charity in dealing with the poor. Even Bennett's grudgingly-offered assistance is a step above what would typically be expected. While we could feel a wide spectrum of emotions for the two main parties here, it's Ms. Shepherd's character who says "I didn't choose. I was chosen". We are left to interpret her words in a way that is either quite sad or accepting.
The film mostly avoids dime store sentimentality, and that's in large part due to Maggie Smith's performance. Few are as effective at frightening young kids or putting the elite in their place. The ending scene shows the real Alan Bennett cruising into the driveway on his bicycle just as the blue plaque honoring the lady in the van is displayed. We can be certain this gesture would not generate a "thank you" from her.
Maggie Smith is a Marvel
bkrauser-81-31106421 February 2016
The film begins with our protagonist Miss Shepherd (Smith) driving through the English countryside hoping to avoid a policeman. There is blood splattered against her cracked windshield and a flustered look on Shepherd's face. We then meet our narrator Alan Bennett (Jennings) a playwright who has just moved to the quiet middle-class neighborhood of Camden. He is of two minds; one who writes fastidiously while the other takes care of the daily functions of his life. The doppelgangers argue about the trajectory of his work, both deciding he lacks the excitement of Hemingway and the complexities of Proust. Then Miss Shepherd moves into the neighborhood, setting her dilapidated van along the street to the horror of Camden's well-to-do residents.
Dame Maggie Smith has had a long and illustrious career to be sure. A consistently tremendous force on the stage and screen, Smith has been in show-business since the 1950's and not once has she faltered with an abysmal performance. The Lady in the Van is certainly no exception. She takes on the role she first popularized on the stage play with gusto relishing in the tiniest little moments that breathe life into Shepherd. So popular was her portrayal on stage that she was nominated for Best Actress at the Olivier Awards and this year she was similarly nominated for a Golden Globe.
Alas The Lady in the Van is not simply about Shepherd and her cantankerous run-ins with neighbors, social workers and Alan. Alan's struggle to come to terms with his sickly mother, his circumspect sexuality and his writing, at one point putting on a monologue on London's West End which goes badly. Alex Jennings tries hard to make his duel role stick but his periodic subplots feel airy, lack conflict and pad time in between Smith's charming homeless-woman stunts and his own droll voice-over narration. He's not a real character or at least one we really care about. He's simply the vessel in which the story carries itself while Smith is the showcase.
While it's easy to see how this film's source material is stage- driven, director Nicholas Hytner does a fine job elevating the story in a more cinematic way. He used his eye to similar aplomb in The Madness of King George (1994) which delved into similar themes albeit in a much grander way. We get a picturesque view of springtime Camden with all the trappings of upper-middle class opulence. In such an environment, Shepherds garish van sticks out like a sore thumb jabbing at the neighbors sensibilities. Despite the main conflict surrounding what the neighborhood should to with their local reprobate, none of them are treated as outright monsters. The film takes place within a 15-year time span thus what eventually becomes a nuisance morphs into a local mainstay.
There's one piece of The Lady in the Van puzzle that must be addressed and that is the outstanding score by five time Oscar nominee George Fenton. His original music is grand and bittersweet which perfectly matches the emotional core of the film. He borrows some insightful leitmotifs from Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky while also presenting some specific pieces by Schubert and Chopin. One particular piece; an impromptu by Schubert does such a good job portraying the sadness and sense of guilt of Miss Shepherd, that it ranks up there with the Chopin ballad scene in The Pianist (2002) as best example of classical music translating character emotion.
Yet in spite of some stellar music, one showstopping performance on the part of Maggie Smith and a kindly message about transience, The Lady in the Van can't help but feel almost too sweet. It's a movie that will put a warm smile on your face and keep it there but it won't stick with you long after you've left the theater. That's not altogether a bad thing though; if you're craving for some wholesome entertainment sure to warm your heart, The Lady in the Van is certainly worth your time.
Dame Maggie Smith has had a long and illustrious career to be sure. A consistently tremendous force on the stage and screen, Smith has been in show-business since the 1950's and not once has she faltered with an abysmal performance. The Lady in the Van is certainly no exception. She takes on the role she first popularized on the stage play with gusto relishing in the tiniest little moments that breathe life into Shepherd. So popular was her portrayal on stage that she was nominated for Best Actress at the Olivier Awards and this year she was similarly nominated for a Golden Globe.
Alas The Lady in the Van is not simply about Shepherd and her cantankerous run-ins with neighbors, social workers and Alan. Alan's struggle to come to terms with his sickly mother, his circumspect sexuality and his writing, at one point putting on a monologue on London's West End which goes badly. Alex Jennings tries hard to make his duel role stick but his periodic subplots feel airy, lack conflict and pad time in between Smith's charming homeless-woman stunts and his own droll voice-over narration. He's not a real character or at least one we really care about. He's simply the vessel in which the story carries itself while Smith is the showcase.
While it's easy to see how this film's source material is stage- driven, director Nicholas Hytner does a fine job elevating the story in a more cinematic way. He used his eye to similar aplomb in The Madness of King George (1994) which delved into similar themes albeit in a much grander way. We get a picturesque view of springtime Camden with all the trappings of upper-middle class opulence. In such an environment, Shepherds garish van sticks out like a sore thumb jabbing at the neighbors sensibilities. Despite the main conflict surrounding what the neighborhood should to with their local reprobate, none of them are treated as outright monsters. The film takes place within a 15-year time span thus what eventually becomes a nuisance morphs into a local mainstay.
There's one piece of The Lady in the Van puzzle that must be addressed and that is the outstanding score by five time Oscar nominee George Fenton. His original music is grand and bittersweet which perfectly matches the emotional core of the film. He borrows some insightful leitmotifs from Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky while also presenting some specific pieces by Schubert and Chopin. One particular piece; an impromptu by Schubert does such a good job portraying the sadness and sense of guilt of Miss Shepherd, that it ranks up there with the Chopin ballad scene in The Pianist (2002) as best example of classical music translating character emotion.
Yet in spite of some stellar music, one showstopping performance on the part of Maggie Smith and a kindly message about transience, The Lady in the Van can't help but feel almost too sweet. It's a movie that will put a warm smile on your face and keep it there but it won't stick with you long after you've left the theater. That's not altogether a bad thing though; if you're craving for some wholesome entertainment sure to warm your heart, The Lady in the Van is certainly worth your time.
Character study, Master Class, Maggie Smith. It is what it is.
mark.waltz27 October 2016
Warning: Spoilers
To say that a certain performer could read the phone book and command attention has become a total cliché. It's used so much that when it is warranted, people roll their eyes because they've heard it so much. But for certain actors, it is true. They do command attention, not just because they are scene stealers or have a way delivering a sarcastic line or even because you've come to expect brilliance from them even in the lamest of works. It is in their soul, a gift from God, and a shining example from God that excellence does exist in the human being. Maybe not perfection, but in their talent, something so raw and beautiful that you feel that you are in love with them without even knowing them.
That is the case with Maggie Smith, an artist I have loved since my teen years, seeing her on screen in the original release of "Murder By Death". That 40 year old film has set my screen viewing on a love affair with the dry, witty, passionate and inwardly beautiful characters that she has played. And this, rumored to possibly be her final film, is her at her absolute most passionately brilliant characterization of all of those qualities.
Miss Shepherd isn't someone you'd want outside your home: apparently smelly, rude, cantankerous and manipulative. Harassed on the street, blackmailed, bugged to no end by social services, she becomes slowly both a rose and a thorn to writer Alan Bennett. His observing of her in all of her moods makes her come to life beyond those qualities.
This is not the first time that Dame Maggie has played not so glamorous characters or more staid, non- sarcastic ones. She could be any old bag lady you'd see on the street, supplying life observations to those who care to listen. She is real. She isn't acting. She is being. And thus, she is beautiful. And in deed, if this is her last film, she gets the most appropriate of endings.
That is the case with Maggie Smith, an artist I have loved since my teen years, seeing her on screen in the original release of "Murder By Death". That 40 year old film has set my screen viewing on a love affair with the dry, witty, passionate and inwardly beautiful characters that she has played. And this, rumored to possibly be her final film, is her at her absolute most passionately brilliant characterization of all of those qualities.
Miss Shepherd isn't someone you'd want outside your home: apparently smelly, rude, cantankerous and manipulative. Harassed on the street, blackmailed, bugged to no end by social services, she becomes slowly both a rose and a thorn to writer Alan Bennett. His observing of her in all of her moods makes her come to life beyond those qualities.
This is not the first time that Dame Maggie has played not so glamorous characters or more staid, non- sarcastic ones. She could be any old bag lady you'd see on the street, supplying life observations to those who care to listen. She is real. She isn't acting. She is being. And thus, she is beautiful. And in deed, if this is her last film, she gets the most appropriate of endings.
Entertaining and touching
gsygsy25 November 2015
A very entertaining, and occasionally touching, film written by Alan Bennett, a British National Treasure - though I'm sure he must be irritated, if not sickened, by being so described. His unique voice is instantly recognisable: self-knowing, self-mocking, never ever self-regarding. In spite of a string of stage and screen successes, he is essentially a man of letters: there is a literary quality about his work, and a good deal of his humour emerges from the contrast between the elegance of his sentences and the earthy, realistic observations they contain.
Bennett adapted his memoir about Miss Shepherd, whose residence is the eponymous vehicle (one of a series of vehicles, as it turns out) that occupies his driveway for fifteen years, for the stage, which brought director Nicholas Hytner and actors Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings on to the project. All three return for this film version, and an excellent job they make of it.
Bennett slyly juggles a number of subplots without you ever really being aware that is what they are. When they are finally identified and tied up in a package, it feels a little too neat and tidy after all that sprawl - an interesting comparison is Charlie Kaufmann's bleaker vision of a writer's struggle with a piece of work, Synechdoche New York - but Bennett's droll dialogue, and his clear-sightedness over the way compassion intertwines with guilt, compensates for the sense of well-made screenplay that dominates the closing section of the film.
Highly recommended.
Bennett adapted his memoir about Miss Shepherd, whose residence is the eponymous vehicle (one of a series of vehicles, as it turns out) that occupies his driveway for fifteen years, for the stage, which brought director Nicholas Hytner and actors Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings on to the project. All three return for this film version, and an excellent job they make of it.
Bennett slyly juggles a number of subplots without you ever really being aware that is what they are. When they are finally identified and tied up in a package, it feels a little too neat and tidy after all that sprawl - an interesting comparison is Charlie Kaufmann's bleaker vision of a writer's struggle with a piece of work, Synechdoche New York - but Bennett's droll dialogue, and his clear-sightedness over the way compassion intertwines with guilt, compensates for the sense of well-made screenplay that dominates the closing section of the film.
Highly recommended.
Dame Maggie as another cranky old bird
davidgee20 November 2015
At the bottom of the poster it says: 'This is a mostly true story.' Nicholas Hytner directs a 'revisionist' take on Miss Shepherd, the tramp-like old biddy who parked her van in Alan Bennett's front drive for a few weeks that turned into 15 years. The movie version fleshes out her story with glimpses of her past (a convent, a piano recital, a family feud, a fatal accident) which the narrator (one of the two Alan Bennetts played by Alex Jennings) tells us he only found out after she died.
A woman in front of me whispered to her companion, who wondered why Alan Bennett had a twin, that he actually had a split personality. That's not a bad explanation for the device of the householder Alan who puts up with Miss Shepherd (and clears her mess from his drive) and the writer Alan who doesn't think there's a story in this. I'm not sure that the double-act is entirely effective or necessary: a voice-over from the real Alan would have worked just as well, wouldn't it?
Despite the attempts to give the Lady a life before the Van, the screenplay is more revealing about the playwright, the reluctant Samaritan who is also having to deal with his northern mother's journey down the road to dementia. There are even a few references to the fact that Mr Bennett's sexuality was being questioned for many years before he finally outed himself.
The movie has more pace than the book and the play did. Maggie Smith is of course simply magnificent, fully absorbed into the grimy skin of this unlovable old harridan. Her performance is pitched midway between the Duchess of Downton and Muriel from the Marigold Hotel, although the character preposterously blends Hyacinth Bucket with Victor Meldrew. The 'History Boys', who largely owe their careers to Mr Bennett, pop up in a series of cameos, along with Frances de la Tour and Stephen Campbell-Moore from the same play. Jim Broadbent's scrounger is the least convincing presence and is perhaps mostly untrue.
This looks like being another highly competitive year for Oscars and BAFTAs, but Dame Maggie is certain to be a contender and could well be a winner. THE LADY IN THE VAN is not pitch-perfect in the way that THE HISTORY BOYS was (and the first - best - MARIGOLD HOTEL), but it is another master-class exemplar of British writing, acting and film- making.
A woman in front of me whispered to her companion, who wondered why Alan Bennett had a twin, that he actually had a split personality. That's not a bad explanation for the device of the householder Alan who puts up with Miss Shepherd (and clears her mess from his drive) and the writer Alan who doesn't think there's a story in this. I'm not sure that the double-act is entirely effective or necessary: a voice-over from the real Alan would have worked just as well, wouldn't it?
Despite the attempts to give the Lady a life before the Van, the screenplay is more revealing about the playwright, the reluctant Samaritan who is also having to deal with his northern mother's journey down the road to dementia. There are even a few references to the fact that Mr Bennett's sexuality was being questioned for many years before he finally outed himself.
The movie has more pace than the book and the play did. Maggie Smith is of course simply magnificent, fully absorbed into the grimy skin of this unlovable old harridan. Her performance is pitched midway between the Duchess of Downton and Muriel from the Marigold Hotel, although the character preposterously blends Hyacinth Bucket with Victor Meldrew. The 'History Boys', who largely owe their careers to Mr Bennett, pop up in a series of cameos, along with Frances de la Tour and Stephen Campbell-Moore from the same play. Jim Broadbent's scrounger is the least convincing presence and is perhaps mostly untrue.
This looks like being another highly competitive year for Oscars and BAFTAs, but Dame Maggie is certain to be a contender and could well be a winner. THE LADY IN THE VAN is not pitch-perfect in the way that THE HISTORY BOYS was (and the first - best - MARIGOLD HOTEL), but it is another master-class exemplar of British writing, acting and film- making.
Satisfying! Perfect flick for a beautiful rainy day.
nikhil_kamra14 July 2016
"The Lady in the Van"
I added this movie to my watch-list months ago, as soon as I saw the premise and Maggie's name in it's description. Just watched it. And it's EXACTLY what I expected it to be. :)
The plot: (without spoilers)
It's a poignant portrayal of a homeless woman who finds shelter when a lonely writer out of his timidness (don't confuse it with politeness, although being England, timid is good, too) lets her park her van in his driveway. Their bond, which was supposed to end within a few months, lasts almost 15 years.
The review: (without spoilers)
From the starting, you'll be hooked to the character of Maggie Smith, thanks to her glorious acting and the delightful character, Mary/Margaret/Miss Sheperd, she brings life to. Alex Jennings, who plays Alan, the man who lets her stay in her driveway, is quite a delightful actor himself. I don't think I've seen him in any other flicks. Yet.
Regardless to say, the acting is superb. The plot is adorable and heartbreaking, both at the same time. It's a perfect little drama movie with loads of charming humor, mainly delivered by Maggie. Yes, it gets a bit, as the other reviewers have put it, "dull" in the second half, but I think it's perfectly fine, because going in halfway, I expected nothing else. By the time it ended, there was a sense of contentedness in my heart. Also, it had stopped raining, not that THAT matters! :P
In short, this movie is a perfect, "bundle of joy".
I give it: 7.5/10
Also, I have noticed most of the British flicks go unnoticed, here on IMDb. I really wonder why. I have been tracking this one here for months and still it has only 10K or so votes and a lower rating than it deserves. Anyway, I hope this review will attract more viewers? I don't know, but one CAN hope.
That's it for now folks! :)
I added this movie to my watch-list months ago, as soon as I saw the premise and Maggie's name in it's description. Just watched it. And it's EXACTLY what I expected it to be. :)
The plot: (without spoilers)
It's a poignant portrayal of a homeless woman who finds shelter when a lonely writer out of his timidness (don't confuse it with politeness, although being England, timid is good, too) lets her park her van in his driveway. Their bond, which was supposed to end within a few months, lasts almost 15 years.
The review: (without spoilers)
From the starting, you'll be hooked to the character of Maggie Smith, thanks to her glorious acting and the delightful character, Mary/Margaret/Miss Sheperd, she brings life to. Alex Jennings, who plays Alan, the man who lets her stay in her driveway, is quite a delightful actor himself. I don't think I've seen him in any other flicks. Yet.
Regardless to say, the acting is superb. The plot is adorable and heartbreaking, both at the same time. It's a perfect little drama movie with loads of charming humor, mainly delivered by Maggie. Yes, it gets a bit, as the other reviewers have put it, "dull" in the second half, but I think it's perfectly fine, because going in halfway, I expected nothing else. By the time it ended, there was a sense of contentedness in my heart. Also, it had stopped raining, not that THAT matters! :P
In short, this movie is a perfect, "bundle of joy".
I give it: 7.5/10
Also, I have noticed most of the British flicks go unnoticed, here on IMDb. I really wonder why. I have been tracking this one here for months and still it has only 10K or so votes and a lower rating than it deserves. Anyway, I hope this review will attract more viewers? I don't know, but one CAN hope.
That's it for now folks! :)
A very British tale
bob-the-movie-man18 November 2015
When you see vagrants sleeping rough in doorways it is grimly fascinating to wonder how they got there. Was it a gradual descent due to drink or drugs? Or was it an 'explosive decompression' – an event so dramatic it capsized an otherwise stable existence? In a gripping pre-title sequence, it is the latter that sets up the back-story for Miss Shepherd – the titular "Lady in the Van" played by the marvelous Dame Maggie Smith.
Based on a "mostly true" story, Miss Shepherd lives in an old Bedford van progressing from unwelcome parking space to unwelcome parking space in the well-to-do Gloucester Crescent in Camden (a street that strangely the Google Streetview car has never ventured down!).
This introduces us to a selection of the local residents, including – bizarrely – the wife of composer Ralph Vaughan-Williams (Frances de la Tour). The wily Miss Shepherd can however spot a soft touch from miles away and latches onto the newest resident, famous playwright Alan Bennett played (in multiple concurrent forms) by Alex Jennings (doing a fine impersonation). When yellow-lines necessitate action, Miss Shepherd wheedles her van onto his driveway for "three months": three months that turns into 15 years.
I was in two minds from the trailer as to whether I wanted to see this film or not, and I'm so pleased that I did. What stands out, and what makes it so enjoyable, is the whip-smart and intelligent script by Bennett, based on his memoirs. The use of two Bennetts – one 'doing the writing' and one 'doing the living' – could be considered contrived, but allows the frustrations and inner demons (concerning his ailing mother 'up north') to be given a witty and articulate voice.
Despite getting progressively typecast as a vaguely batty old woman, Dame Maggie excels as the troubled Miss Shepherd – it is difficult to imagine many other actresses being able to pull off this larger than life role any better. When pathos is required (e.g. "Why did you choose to live like this?"; "I didn't choose I was chosen") she delivers it in heart breaking fashion. But her more comic pronouncements, such as the one about the number of "young men" visiting Bennett's house at "every hour of the day and night" obviously being "communists", were hilarious. What appears on the surface to be a mildly humorous movie turned out to have some serious belly-laughs.
Less successful in the film is the normally excellent Jim Broadbent, playing a retired copper with an unhealthy interest in the old lady. While this may have been a true part of the story, it really didn't come across very satisfactorily, and the scenes seem brash and out of kilter with the mood of the rest of the film.
A selection of cameos in the film include Dominic Cooper ("Captain America", "Mamma Mia") and (proving how long this film has been in the can) the now US celebrity presenter James Corden.
The slightly surreal ending of the film, set in a graveyard, might not be to everyone's taste, but I personally enjoyed it and it added to the kookiness of what turned out to be a pretty kooky film.
The film is directed by Nicholas Hytner. Although having a few notable movies to his credit ("The Madness of King George", "The History Boys"), he is better known as a regular director for National Theatre productions in London, and the film does have something of a 'stagy' feel about it. But as an example of a quintessential British film, based on a 'true' subject that seems barely credible, it makes for a heart-warming and highly entertaining trip to the movies. And in this week of the dreadful events in Paris, we could all do with that. Recommended.
(Please visit bob-the-movie-man.com for the graphical version of this review. Thanks).
Based on a "mostly true" story, Miss Shepherd lives in an old Bedford van progressing from unwelcome parking space to unwelcome parking space in the well-to-do Gloucester Crescent in Camden (a street that strangely the Google Streetview car has never ventured down!).
This introduces us to a selection of the local residents, including – bizarrely – the wife of composer Ralph Vaughan-Williams (Frances de la Tour). The wily Miss Shepherd can however spot a soft touch from miles away and latches onto the newest resident, famous playwright Alan Bennett played (in multiple concurrent forms) by Alex Jennings (doing a fine impersonation). When yellow-lines necessitate action, Miss Shepherd wheedles her van onto his driveway for "three months": three months that turns into 15 years.
I was in two minds from the trailer as to whether I wanted to see this film or not, and I'm so pleased that I did. What stands out, and what makes it so enjoyable, is the whip-smart and intelligent script by Bennett, based on his memoirs. The use of two Bennetts – one 'doing the writing' and one 'doing the living' – could be considered contrived, but allows the frustrations and inner demons (concerning his ailing mother 'up north') to be given a witty and articulate voice.
Despite getting progressively typecast as a vaguely batty old woman, Dame Maggie excels as the troubled Miss Shepherd – it is difficult to imagine many other actresses being able to pull off this larger than life role any better. When pathos is required (e.g. "Why did you choose to live like this?"; "I didn't choose I was chosen") she delivers it in heart breaking fashion. But her more comic pronouncements, such as the one about the number of "young men" visiting Bennett's house at "every hour of the day and night" obviously being "communists", were hilarious. What appears on the surface to be a mildly humorous movie turned out to have some serious belly-laughs.
Less successful in the film is the normally excellent Jim Broadbent, playing a retired copper with an unhealthy interest in the old lady. While this may have been a true part of the story, it really didn't come across very satisfactorily, and the scenes seem brash and out of kilter with the mood of the rest of the film.
A selection of cameos in the film include Dominic Cooper ("Captain America", "Mamma Mia") and (proving how long this film has been in the can) the now US celebrity presenter James Corden.
The slightly surreal ending of the film, set in a graveyard, might not be to everyone's taste, but I personally enjoyed it and it added to the kookiness of what turned out to be a pretty kooky film.
The film is directed by Nicholas Hytner. Although having a few notable movies to his credit ("The Madness of King George", "The History Boys"), he is better known as a regular director for National Theatre productions in London, and the film does have something of a 'stagy' feel about it. But as an example of a quintessential British film, based on a 'true' subject that seems barely credible, it makes for a heart-warming and highly entertaining trip to the movies. And in this week of the dreadful events in Paris, we could all do with that. Recommended.
(Please visit bob-the-movie-man.com for the graphical version of this review. Thanks).
"....Sadly though, by the end of the film, I felt slightly heady and nauseated...".
gwest-0733117 June 2021
In my opinion, the theme of the film is not quite right, and feels unsettled in mood: I thought it promised to be a breath of fresh air of comic eccentricity, with a clash of wills -in some way it is, but I found the film be a routine of tiresome humour of tension between a playwright and an old lady who lived in a van outside the playwright's house.
Maggie Smith however, is wonderful as the actress in her portrayal of 'The Lady in the Van.' Perhaps the film could have won me over if it were entirely focused on the lady's character or life story ( -or even a monologue which would have been far more interesting than Alan Bennett's own monologues of himself, of which he greatly seems to be indulgent, and be fond of.... )
Instead, we seem to have a portrayal of Alan Bennett in importance of being.... Alan Bennett - and if that were not enough of his own presence in film image, we also have a screen image of two Alan Bennett's....one with the imagination of the playwright.....and the other in thought of the domestic Alan of the house -talking to themselves together: how annoying is that?
I would though, like to draw merit to the actual filming in the beautiful setting of the drama -there is a visual and wonderful nostalgic feeling to the time and place -and I like that, except that the style of the filming tends to be whimsical which clashes in contrast to the expense of poking fun of the eccentric lady's character. The incidental music score does not help - the melody skips along like a daft walk of mimicry fun.
I also don't 'buy' the blue plaque scene outside the playwright's house....rather than to bring honour and to add a memorial to the lady, it draws a fantasy of attention to the Play itself -by Alan Bennett.....as the real life playwright himself turns up on his bicycle to view the unveiling scene of the plaque; so does the camera withdraw backwards so that the cinema audience get to see the actual filming with cameras and microphones on the film set. This may be clever, but feels a bit crass and self-centered. The ending too, of the film feels as though the storyline has run out of steam of ideas of the 'comical' character that the film seems intent to make fun of, and then unfairly - masquerading her description as a cantankerous woman -as though everything was her fault in the first place.
The film gives unfair licence to allow us to indulge in the fun at her expense of the play and film's success -but forgetting that we have invaded her very own private and sad life.....
I also feel that the characters in the neighbourhood are sketchy and pedestrian as though there is no soul or depth of feeling in getting to know their own thoughts - at least the playwright could have extended his imagination in style of old England's Coronation Street? Sadly though, by the end of the film, I felt slightly heady and nauseated.
Maggie Smith however, is wonderful as the actress in her portrayal of 'The Lady in the Van.' Perhaps the film could have won me over if it were entirely focused on the lady's character or life story ( -or even a monologue which would have been far more interesting than Alan Bennett's own monologues of himself, of which he greatly seems to be indulgent, and be fond of.... )
Instead, we seem to have a portrayal of Alan Bennett in importance of being.... Alan Bennett - and if that were not enough of his own presence in film image, we also have a screen image of two Alan Bennett's....one with the imagination of the playwright.....and the other in thought of the domestic Alan of the house -talking to themselves together: how annoying is that?
I would though, like to draw merit to the actual filming in the beautiful setting of the drama -there is a visual and wonderful nostalgic feeling to the time and place -and I like that, except that the style of the filming tends to be whimsical which clashes in contrast to the expense of poking fun of the eccentric lady's character. The incidental music score does not help - the melody skips along like a daft walk of mimicry fun.
I also don't 'buy' the blue plaque scene outside the playwright's house....rather than to bring honour and to add a memorial to the lady, it draws a fantasy of attention to the Play itself -by Alan Bennett.....as the real life playwright himself turns up on his bicycle to view the unveiling scene of the plaque; so does the camera withdraw backwards so that the cinema audience get to see the actual filming with cameras and microphones on the film set. This may be clever, but feels a bit crass and self-centered. The ending too, of the film feels as though the storyline has run out of steam of ideas of the 'comical' character that the film seems intent to make fun of, and then unfairly - masquerading her description as a cantankerous woman -as though everything was her fault in the first place.
The film gives unfair licence to allow us to indulge in the fun at her expense of the play and film's success -but forgetting that we have invaded her very own private and sad life.....
I also feel that the characters in the neighbourhood are sketchy and pedestrian as though there is no soul or depth of feeling in getting to know their own thoughts - at least the playwright could have extended his imagination in style of old England's Coronation Street? Sadly though, by the end of the film, I felt slightly heady and nauseated.
A Perfect Little Movie
richard-196724 December 2015
The best thing Maggie Smith did for The Lady in the Van was not giving a brilliant acting performance, but agreeing to reprise her stage role as The Lady. Without that, this movie would not have been made.
This is a near-perfect "small" movie, but unlike many such films, this one is neither slow nor boring. The film begins with the sounds of a terrible car crash, and within ten minutes, we have several mysteries to chew on: Who is "the lady" really; why can't she tolerate listening to music; what happened in that car crash? These mysteries keep us engaged while playwright Alan Bennett tells us a story that at its core is more about the relationship between Bennett - or rather Bennett's two selves, the one who writes and the one who lives life - and the lady living in his driveway.
In choosing to portray himself as two characters – also a feature of his play – Bennett has chosen a device that could have been a disaster but in the rendering comes off brilliantly, especially near the end of this highly engaging film. I don't want to give anything away about that, so just watch it for yourself and enjoy.
This is a near-perfect "small" movie, but unlike many such films, this one is neither slow nor boring. The film begins with the sounds of a terrible car crash, and within ten minutes, we have several mysteries to chew on: Who is "the lady" really; why can't she tolerate listening to music; what happened in that car crash? These mysteries keep us engaged while playwright Alan Bennett tells us a story that at its core is more about the relationship between Bennett - or rather Bennett's two selves, the one who writes and the one who lives life - and the lady living in his driveway.
In choosing to portray himself as two characters – also a feature of his play – Bennett has chosen a device that could have been a disaster but in the rendering comes off brilliantly, especially near the end of this highly engaging film. I don't want to give anything away about that, so just watch it for yourself and enjoy.
Lady in the Van doesn't command much attention, but it's love at first sight for good old Maggie Smith.
LloydBayer17 December 2015
Based on a 1970s biographical drama of the same name by noted British playwright Alan Bennett, The Lady in the Van is a "mostly true story" as mentioned at the beginning of the film. That's because Bennett had to put up with an old homeless woman for 15 years by allowing her to live in her van in his driveway. Then in 1999, Bennett cast Maggie Smith as the titular hobo in his own play. Ironically, Smith plays the same character on screen little over 15 years later.
Smith plays Mary Shepherd, an old woman literally living out of her van. She moves from house to house looking for parking space and is mostly a grumpy old woman who doesn't take kindly to anyone. She is extremely unhygienic and doesn't seem to care either. She is also a bully, and a tough one for her age. But there's something about Mary (no, that's a different film) that is equally poignant. She knows this and uses it to get almost everything she wants, including couple more vans! Meanwhile, Bennett, although always reluctant to Mary's emotional extortion, finds it humane to accommodate her. He is often seen talking to himself when there are two of him in the same frame. One is Bennett in the film and the other is Bennett the playwright scripting this story. This double imagery is also used as an allegory to illustrate his internal conflicts. One of which is the involuntary fondness he finds for Mary when he should be taking care of his aged mother living elsewhere. But after moving into his driveway, Bennett slowly learns that Mary is not the person he and everyone else think she is.
It's a bit of a mystery for us too until we learn Mary's background, her real name, and why she's so bitter yet fragile at the same time. While all this plays out slowly, albeit with typical British humour, the film is only enjoyable because of Maggie Smith. Her shrill voice, her piercing eyes, frail one moment, then boisterous the next, Smith is simply exceptional at her age. At certain points through the film you just want to reach out and hug her. She is that effective.
It's not the biggest dramedy of the year and not even the funniest, but The Lady in the Van is bound to please just about anyone. And like the titular character, it's a film hard to love, but once you do, it's equally hard to resist.
Smith plays Mary Shepherd, an old woman literally living out of her van. She moves from house to house looking for parking space and is mostly a grumpy old woman who doesn't take kindly to anyone. She is extremely unhygienic and doesn't seem to care either. She is also a bully, and a tough one for her age. But there's something about Mary (no, that's a different film) that is equally poignant. She knows this and uses it to get almost everything she wants, including couple more vans! Meanwhile, Bennett, although always reluctant to Mary's emotional extortion, finds it humane to accommodate her. He is often seen talking to himself when there are two of him in the same frame. One is Bennett in the film and the other is Bennett the playwright scripting this story. This double imagery is also used as an allegory to illustrate his internal conflicts. One of which is the involuntary fondness he finds for Mary when he should be taking care of his aged mother living elsewhere. But after moving into his driveway, Bennett slowly learns that Mary is not the person he and everyone else think she is.
It's a bit of a mystery for us too until we learn Mary's background, her real name, and why she's so bitter yet fragile at the same time. While all this plays out slowly, albeit with typical British humour, the film is only enjoyable because of Maggie Smith. Her shrill voice, her piercing eyes, frail one moment, then boisterous the next, Smith is simply exceptional at her age. At certain points through the film you just want to reach out and hug her. She is that effective.
It's not the biggest dramedy of the year and not even the funniest, but The Lady in the Van is bound to please just about anyone. And like the titular character, it's a film hard to love, but once you do, it's equally hard to resist.
Unfortunately it's rather bland
carlo_simone1820 May 2018
My biggest praise for this film is for the performances of Maggie Smith and Alan Jennings, who brought to life their characters extremely well. Smith shines as the eccentric and cantankerous Miss Shepherd who has a troubled past, whilst Jennings is also brilliant as Alan Bennett with his sharp wit and intellect providing for some funny moments. The relationship that builds between them is developed very effectively.
However, I do have many problems with the narrative, mainly that it doesn't amount to much with so little actually happening in the story. I found it very hard to be engaged when most of it singly revolved around the interactions between Smith and Jennings with very little else going on. Also, learning about Miss Shepherd's past could have been quite intriguing but it just leads to some rather underwhelming reveals at the end with little deeper exploration into how she became the person she is.
In the end I found this to be quite average, not terrible by any means, but not something I will ever have the inclination to watch again.
However, I do have many problems with the narrative, mainly that it doesn't amount to much with so little actually happening in the story. I found it very hard to be engaged when most of it singly revolved around the interactions between Smith and Jennings with very little else going on. Also, learning about Miss Shepherd's past could have been quite intriguing but it just leads to some rather underwhelming reveals at the end with little deeper exploration into how she became the person she is.
In the end I found this to be quite average, not terrible by any means, but not something I will ever have the inclination to watch again.
Maggie Smith is exceptionally batty
luke-a-mcgowan1 April 2016
1. This film earns most of its score just from the performance of Maggie Smith. She is wonderfully batty, half-deranged and as she totters around with her canes and rumbles along in whatever vehicle she's in at the moment, you cannot take your eyes off her. In my opinion, she's in the top three performances by a lead actress last year.
2. I found Nicholas Hynter/Alan Bennett's decision to have two Alan Bennett characters quite endearing but at other times rather annoying. It closed out the film quite nicely but throughout I don't feel it really added a whole lot.
3. I don't know whether to credit the screenplay or Dame Maggie Smith's delivery, but everything she says is wonderful, especially when jabbering about the Virgin Mary or driving ambulances.
4. Jim Broadbent's small role is an nasty slimy and impressive play against Horace Slughorn, but his character was never fully realised.
5. "Mary, as you call her, is a bigoted, blinkered, cantankerous, devious, unforgiving, self- serving, rank, rude, car-mad cow, which is to say nothing of her flying feces and her ability to extrude from her withered buttocks turds of such force, that they land a yard from the back of the van and their presumed point of exit." This line is so wonderfully written and funny that I lay back and laughed for about sixty seconds.
6. The "mystery" introduced at the start of the film is so obvious that they would have been better off just being open about it from the beginning.
7. The pace is slow at times. Not unbearable, but slow. In a 1hr 40 minute movie, it takes far too long for her to even get into Alan's driveway.
8. The bustle around the graveyard is likely the best part of Maggie Smith's performance, but it ended with a little too much spirituality and silliness for me.
9. I've seen people complain about the wasted cameos of James Corden and Dominic Cooper. What they likely don't realise is that they are just two of a much larger cast of one of Alan Bennett's plays who all cameo in the film. There wasn't room to flesh out all the cameos, it was just as a nice little nod to Bennett himself.
10. It takes too long to end. She's not Oskar Schindler, she doesn't need a live action tribute at the end.
2. I found Nicholas Hynter/Alan Bennett's decision to have two Alan Bennett characters quite endearing but at other times rather annoying. It closed out the film quite nicely but throughout I don't feel it really added a whole lot.
3. I don't know whether to credit the screenplay or Dame Maggie Smith's delivery, but everything she says is wonderful, especially when jabbering about the Virgin Mary or driving ambulances.
4. Jim Broadbent's small role is an nasty slimy and impressive play against Horace Slughorn, but his character was never fully realised.
5. "Mary, as you call her, is a bigoted, blinkered, cantankerous, devious, unforgiving, self- serving, rank, rude, car-mad cow, which is to say nothing of her flying feces and her ability to extrude from her withered buttocks turds of such force, that they land a yard from the back of the van and their presumed point of exit." This line is so wonderfully written and funny that I lay back and laughed for about sixty seconds.
6. The "mystery" introduced at the start of the film is so obvious that they would have been better off just being open about it from the beginning.
7. The pace is slow at times. Not unbearable, but slow. In a 1hr 40 minute movie, it takes far too long for her to even get into Alan's driveway.
8. The bustle around the graveyard is likely the best part of Maggie Smith's performance, but it ended with a little too much spirituality and silliness for me.
9. I've seen people complain about the wasted cameos of James Corden and Dominic Cooper. What they likely don't realise is that they are just two of a much larger cast of one of Alan Bennett's plays who all cameo in the film. There wasn't room to flesh out all the cameos, it was just as a nice little nod to Bennett himself.
10. It takes too long to end. She's not Oskar Schindler, she doesn't need a live action tribute at the end.
A very pleasant surprise
TheLittleSongbird1 January 2017
Enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Despite thinking very highly of Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings and Jim Broadbent et al, considering Alan Bennett a talented writer and liking previous work by Nicholas Hytner and George Fenton, the title was not particularly appealing to me, likewise with the subject matter based on a true story unfamiliar to me.
What a pleasant surprise though. Although not a great film and having its faults, 'The Lady in the Van' is a good film with a lot to like and perfect for a rainy day or wanting to let your hair down and relax in the evening. A strong example of not judging a film by its title. Whether 'The Lady in the Van' will garner a wide audience is hard to tell, it is very quintessentially British with a subject matter that perhaps a lot of people won't know much about to properly connect with and the script is written in a style that will work for some and not for others.
'The Lady in the Van' does have its flaws. The length of the film is longer than necessary for a story that is somewhat thin, meaning that there is some draggy pacing in the second half and some resolutions take too long to get there and feel too conveniently wrapped up.
On top of that, the ending, despite having a genuinely moving build-up, seemed to be an attempt at pathos and being uplifting but ended up feeling clumsy, confusing and almost like a cheat (almost like the rest of the film didn't happen). Jim Broadbent's scenes didn't work for me either, they just felt out of place in the film and jar tonally and while Broadbent is a great actor he isn't particularly memorable here.
However, 'The Lady in the Van' is beautifully filmed and handsomely produced, while George Fenton's music score is gentle and sometimes quirky and fits ideally with the film's mood. It also incorporates and arranges pre-existing classical music with ease, the use of Chopin's first piano concerto being the most striking and giving a real sense of pathos. There was the worry as to whether the humour would not feel right and do justice to a story that is quite tragic in a way.
No worries there. The script, with Bennett's style written all over it, is subversive, thought-provoking in how its messaging and what it's trying (and succeeds) to say is conveyed and full of very sharp scathing witticisms, do admit to laughing out loud a number of times. Hytner's direction is understated but always with a sense that he knows what he's doing and where to go.
Maggie Smith is truly magnificent here and worthy of some kind of award nod. Her character easily could have been an annoying caricature, especially in lesser hands, but Smith is often funny and deliciously batty but also gives the character a vulnerability. Alex Jennings is similarly marvellous and also deserving of award recognition, nailing Bennett's nuances, rhythm and how he speaks to a tee. The whole alter ego stuff is obvious early on and it is not always easy who is the real Bennett and who is the alter ego (only occasionally though), but that is in no way an issue, actually it was part of the fun. The chemistry between them is a joy and they work very well with the rest of the cast, who also do very well with some familiar and welcome faces.
On the whole, a very pleasant surprise and much better than expected. 7/10 Bethany Cox
What a pleasant surprise though. Although not a great film and having its faults, 'The Lady in the Van' is a good film with a lot to like and perfect for a rainy day or wanting to let your hair down and relax in the evening. A strong example of not judging a film by its title. Whether 'The Lady in the Van' will garner a wide audience is hard to tell, it is very quintessentially British with a subject matter that perhaps a lot of people won't know much about to properly connect with and the script is written in a style that will work for some and not for others.
'The Lady in the Van' does have its flaws. The length of the film is longer than necessary for a story that is somewhat thin, meaning that there is some draggy pacing in the second half and some resolutions take too long to get there and feel too conveniently wrapped up.
On top of that, the ending, despite having a genuinely moving build-up, seemed to be an attempt at pathos and being uplifting but ended up feeling clumsy, confusing and almost like a cheat (almost like the rest of the film didn't happen). Jim Broadbent's scenes didn't work for me either, they just felt out of place in the film and jar tonally and while Broadbent is a great actor he isn't particularly memorable here.
However, 'The Lady in the Van' is beautifully filmed and handsomely produced, while George Fenton's music score is gentle and sometimes quirky and fits ideally with the film's mood. It also incorporates and arranges pre-existing classical music with ease, the use of Chopin's first piano concerto being the most striking and giving a real sense of pathos. There was the worry as to whether the humour would not feel right and do justice to a story that is quite tragic in a way.
No worries there. The script, with Bennett's style written all over it, is subversive, thought-provoking in how its messaging and what it's trying (and succeeds) to say is conveyed and full of very sharp scathing witticisms, do admit to laughing out loud a number of times. Hytner's direction is understated but always with a sense that he knows what he's doing and where to go.
Maggie Smith is truly magnificent here and worthy of some kind of award nod. Her character easily could have been an annoying caricature, especially in lesser hands, but Smith is often funny and deliciously batty but also gives the character a vulnerability. Alex Jennings is similarly marvellous and also deserving of award recognition, nailing Bennett's nuances, rhythm and how he speaks to a tee. The whole alter ego stuff is obvious early on and it is not always easy who is the real Bennett and who is the alter ego (only occasionally though), but that is in no way an issue, actually it was part of the fun. The chemistry between them is a joy and they work very well with the rest of the cast, who also do very well with some familiar and welcome faces.
On the whole, a very pleasant surprise and much better than expected. 7/10 Bethany Cox
Don't Go Quietly
andyreynolds-123 March 2016
Warning: Spoilers
It's been several years, possibly a decade since I saw a play but my wife and I had the opportunity to rectify this when we went to the cinema to see The Lady in the Van. Never before have I been so aware a film in presentation, direction and dialogue was meant for the theatre instead of the camera.
This doesn't take away from the excellent portrayal of the cantankerous old Mary Shepherd by the magnificent Maggie Smith. The great dame is a force to be reckoned as she begrudgingly accepts Christmas gifts from local kids, screams and shrieks at a small street musical ensemble of local children, paints her four-wheeled domicile or dominates her reluctant landlord.
Maggie doesn't play this for laughs, her performance is real and truly human. Yes there are some funny moments but these are usually more smile inducing rather than loud snorts of laughter. More than anything this lady in the van is an enigma. We yearn to know how she became this way and what brought her to this upper middle class road in the London suburb of Camden. From the beginning we have a mystery of sorts yet instead of providing answers the film is a progression of questions regarding her religious influences, musical tastes, family and general hygiene.
Maggies co-star in the production is Alex Jennings as Alan Bennett. He is the man who wrote the book and play the film is based so not surprisingly he gets most of the best lines. There is a device the filmmakers use to enable Bennett to both narrate and portray his character which I didn't like. I don't know if this was also taken from the original play but it felt unnecessarily complicated and more like a gimmick just to be different. Jennings was still very good as a straight man to Smith and we certainly share his frustrations with this elderly squatter.
The major problem I have with the picture is the final 15 minutes when it totally goes off the rails from a solid British drama to something resembling Monty Python. Don't get me wrong, I love the Python films but I found this ending more of an "in joke" for the producers and merely an opportunity to make fun of themselves.
Poignantly the The Lady in the Van is the portrayal of how the elderly are so poorly treated by our modern society. The film offers the juxtaposition of this cranky old lady who will not be told by anyone what to do as opposed to the mother of Alan Bennett who never wants to cause a fuss. One is known by all in the street and although notoriously ill-tempered and clearly suffering from mental health issues is ultimately cared for by strangers and looked after in her time of need. Alan's mother lives alone begging her son to visit over the phone and is only seen by him when she ventures to London or later in a nursing home after she has been badly injured and in a coma.
Are our elderly such a burden that we must shut them away because we cannot cope for their needs? Or are we just hiding them like Dorian Gray and his portrait to stop reminding ourselves of our own mortality? Either way I greatly admire Mary Shepherd for not meekly accepting her fate.
This doesn't take away from the excellent portrayal of the cantankerous old Mary Shepherd by the magnificent Maggie Smith. The great dame is a force to be reckoned as she begrudgingly accepts Christmas gifts from local kids, screams and shrieks at a small street musical ensemble of local children, paints her four-wheeled domicile or dominates her reluctant landlord.
Maggie doesn't play this for laughs, her performance is real and truly human. Yes there are some funny moments but these are usually more smile inducing rather than loud snorts of laughter. More than anything this lady in the van is an enigma. We yearn to know how she became this way and what brought her to this upper middle class road in the London suburb of Camden. From the beginning we have a mystery of sorts yet instead of providing answers the film is a progression of questions regarding her religious influences, musical tastes, family and general hygiene.
Maggies co-star in the production is Alex Jennings as Alan Bennett. He is the man who wrote the book and play the film is based so not surprisingly he gets most of the best lines. There is a device the filmmakers use to enable Bennett to both narrate and portray his character which I didn't like. I don't know if this was also taken from the original play but it felt unnecessarily complicated and more like a gimmick just to be different. Jennings was still very good as a straight man to Smith and we certainly share his frustrations with this elderly squatter.
The major problem I have with the picture is the final 15 minutes when it totally goes off the rails from a solid British drama to something resembling Monty Python. Don't get me wrong, I love the Python films but I found this ending more of an "in joke" for the producers and merely an opportunity to make fun of themselves.
Poignantly the The Lady in the Van is the portrayal of how the elderly are so poorly treated by our modern society. The film offers the juxtaposition of this cranky old lady who will not be told by anyone what to do as opposed to the mother of Alan Bennett who never wants to cause a fuss. One is known by all in the street and although notoriously ill-tempered and clearly suffering from mental health issues is ultimately cared for by strangers and looked after in her time of need. Alan's mother lives alone begging her son to visit over the phone and is only seen by him when she ventures to London or later in a nursing home after she has been badly injured and in a coma.
Are our elderly such a burden that we must shut them away because we cannot cope for their needs? Or are we just hiding them like Dorian Gray and his portrait to stop reminding ourselves of our own mortality? Either way I greatly admire Mary Shepherd for not meekly accepting her fate.
A 'Mostly' British Film
imaadnabil20 November 2015
This film focuses on the contrasting characters of a writer and an elderly Maggie Smith as the 'lady', or rather ungrateful, self-orientated woman in the yellow van, (and yellow Reliant Robin also). Having said that, her acting is very good once again and her relationship with Alan Bennett is brilliantly portrayed. This film manages to keep a lively feel to it with an occasional laugh here and there. The story is also quite good considering that it is based on a 'mostly' true story of an elderly woman who decides to move into the parkway of a resident in Camden for what was meant to be 3 months, but in actuality became 15 years. This is almost a stereotypically British film with the surprise appearance of James Cordon, and of course a British director, Nicholas Hytner. This is a likable film on many levels although the end might throw a few people. Nevertheless, overall a good film. 7.0/10
Immense watchability and tremendous acting override the many apparent turnoffs
jrarichards26 December 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Almost beyond classification, "The Lady in the Van" seems at times to do almost everything in its power to taunt its viewer into reaching for the "STOP" button. For a start, it features an old and incontinent London-based lady, eccentric to say the least, who has nowhere else to reside but a van surrounded by a fair amount of her own accumulated garbage and other refuse, up to and including even her own faeces. We don't need smellovision to realise that this person must be possessed of a rank odour, and indeed the film's other main protagonist - her closest neighbour - makes that perfectly clear. He is a playwright by profession, portrayed from the outset as split into two separate individuals - artist and man - a presentation technique that many a watcher will find it hard to stay with. The whole thing looks like rather like a play from that playwright, which is in fact the true state of affairs, and the piece occasionally strays yet deeper into fantasy (especially at the end), while also devoting more than the odd minute to the minutiae of that playwright's life - an ostensibly rather dull one, if spiced by occasional crepuscular one-night-stands with younger and mostly rather denim- and leather-clad males.
Surely nobody is going to want to give 104 minutes of their life to this?
Plus the 15 or so minutes in the "Making of..." extra materials, assuming that person possesses the DVD?
But therein lies the clue, as anybody who sticks with this film from Director Nicholas Hytner will CERTAINLY want to go to the Extra Materials. For "The Lady in the Van" is a largely true story about the said old lady, who did indeed reside in a van in a street in Camden Down - the very street, the very house in which the film was made. What is more, that lady had been well-educated, gifted and even internationally famous before circumstances conspired to bring her low - and there in and of itself is a message for all of us of irreducible power. The said van was parked for 15 years (her last 15) in the drive of the house resided in by the said playwright, the latter being the world-famous Alan Bennett - the Yorkshire-accented near-national icon for many Brits, including many (most) who have never actually been to a Bennett play in their lives! While the real-life Bennett appears briefly in the film, the twin versions of him are mostly played here by the same actor as did the job on the London stage, Alex Jennings. Jennings does that job superbly, mesmerisingly well (even if the real Bennett's voice is a tad less effeminate), transforming into the character in a spellbinding manner made all the more impressive when one turns to those Extra Materials and sees the actor in real life. And of course his main interactions throughout are with the titular "Lady in the Van", as played by none other than Dame Maggie Smith (who had again appeared in the stage version, and made that her own).
It is these interactions (and above all the pithy, witty, often bitter-sweet lines exchanged) between two thespians largely without compare that make this piece impressive, though a supporting cast that genuinely makes a film out of the play is great in many and varied small roles. At least one of the members (the very well-known and as ever convincing Frances de la Tour) plays a real-life figure in the shape of Ursula Vaughan-Williams (1911-2007), the second wife (for the last 5 years) of what most would deem the UK's greatest and most lyrically British composer.
This is not a random fact, given that London and its Gloucester Crescent and the somewhat eccentric (but clearly very tolerant) bunch living there are also stars of this show (again helping the metamorphosis from play to film greatly); and we are told at one point that even the rejected wife of Charles Dickens had also once lived in the same street. You couldn't make it up, could you?
It is a background of faded grandeur of this kind - over years, decades and even centuries - that suffuses this somewhat Ealing Comedy-like film, which is nevertheless brutally 2015-realistic in its portrayal of disappointment and self-disgust set against desire to hang on to truth and dignity that are key factors in the lives of both key characters.
Perhaps not by chance, the subliminal historical side of the film is further reinforced by the repeat appearance of fragments of Piano Concerto No. 1, which composer Frederic Chopin wrote and performed aged 20 just before leaving Warsaw for an exile from which he never returned to his homeland (given that he died in France of TB aged 39). The piece is dramatic and inspirational, but of course also melancholy, and above all beautiful, and it fits here so very, very well...
While it might conceivably be argued that Bennett saw the potential for a play (and profit) in the close proximity of "the Van" and its inhabitant, we are left in little doubt that this is above all a story of exceptional kindness, patience and tolerance. Grudging, eccentric and ad hoc, certainly (and hence so archetypally British), but ultimately selfless, dogged and even in some measure devoted.
In summary, there is absolutely nothing spectacular or beautiful in this happily-very-British film except pitiless truth tempered by human decency and kindness, portrayed in the words of a great writer, as delivered by two stratospherically superb actors...
Perhaps that's enough?
Surely nobody is going to want to give 104 minutes of their life to this?
Plus the 15 or so minutes in the "Making of..." extra materials, assuming that person possesses the DVD?
But therein lies the clue, as anybody who sticks with this film from Director Nicholas Hytner will CERTAINLY want to go to the Extra Materials. For "The Lady in the Van" is a largely true story about the said old lady, who did indeed reside in a van in a street in Camden Down - the very street, the very house in which the film was made. What is more, that lady had been well-educated, gifted and even internationally famous before circumstances conspired to bring her low - and there in and of itself is a message for all of us of irreducible power. The said van was parked for 15 years (her last 15) in the drive of the house resided in by the said playwright, the latter being the world-famous Alan Bennett - the Yorkshire-accented near-national icon for many Brits, including many (most) who have never actually been to a Bennett play in their lives! While the real-life Bennett appears briefly in the film, the twin versions of him are mostly played here by the same actor as did the job on the London stage, Alex Jennings. Jennings does that job superbly, mesmerisingly well (even if the real Bennett's voice is a tad less effeminate), transforming into the character in a spellbinding manner made all the more impressive when one turns to those Extra Materials and sees the actor in real life. And of course his main interactions throughout are with the titular "Lady in the Van", as played by none other than Dame Maggie Smith (who had again appeared in the stage version, and made that her own).
It is these interactions (and above all the pithy, witty, often bitter-sweet lines exchanged) between two thespians largely without compare that make this piece impressive, though a supporting cast that genuinely makes a film out of the play is great in many and varied small roles. At least one of the members (the very well-known and as ever convincing Frances de la Tour) plays a real-life figure in the shape of Ursula Vaughan-Williams (1911-2007), the second wife (for the last 5 years) of what most would deem the UK's greatest and most lyrically British composer.
This is not a random fact, given that London and its Gloucester Crescent and the somewhat eccentric (but clearly very tolerant) bunch living there are also stars of this show (again helping the metamorphosis from play to film greatly); and we are told at one point that even the rejected wife of Charles Dickens had also once lived in the same street. You couldn't make it up, could you?
It is a background of faded grandeur of this kind - over years, decades and even centuries - that suffuses this somewhat Ealing Comedy-like film, which is nevertheless brutally 2015-realistic in its portrayal of disappointment and self-disgust set against desire to hang on to truth and dignity that are key factors in the lives of both key characters.
Perhaps not by chance, the subliminal historical side of the film is further reinforced by the repeat appearance of fragments of Piano Concerto No. 1, which composer Frederic Chopin wrote and performed aged 20 just before leaving Warsaw for an exile from which he never returned to his homeland (given that he died in France of TB aged 39). The piece is dramatic and inspirational, but of course also melancholy, and above all beautiful, and it fits here so very, very well...
While it might conceivably be argued that Bennett saw the potential for a play (and profit) in the close proximity of "the Van" and its inhabitant, we are left in little doubt that this is above all a story of exceptional kindness, patience and tolerance. Grudging, eccentric and ad hoc, certainly (and hence so archetypally British), but ultimately selfless, dogged and even in some measure devoted.
In summary, there is absolutely nothing spectacular or beautiful in this happily-very-British film except pitiless truth tempered by human decency and kindness, portrayed in the words of a great writer, as delivered by two stratospherically superb actors...
Perhaps that's enough?
Maggie Smith is brilliant! 7/10
leonblackwood12 March 2016
Review: I really enjoyed this movie, mainly because of Maggie Smith's terrific performance and the unique storyline. Everyone most probably thinks that it's basically about a Lady In A Van but there is an in depth story to Miss Shepherd, which is really emotional and, in a lot of ways, quite sad. The fact that Miss Shepherd lived in a van, because of an car accident that wasn't her fault, and she was being blackmailed by a police officer, Underwood (Jim Broadbent), who knew the truth, made this movie even more emotional, even though she is a grumpy old lady who didn't really care about most people's feelings. The relationship between Miss Shepherd and Alan Bennett (Alex Jennings) was really sweet and the witty script, made this movie a joy to watch. She really did treat the other residents near her van, in Camden, with disrespect, which is quite funny to watch, and they all wanted her to leave there highly respected community because she wasn't the most hygienic lady on the block, and her abusive communication skills were quite offensive but her background story really does prove that all is not what it seems. When she is forced off the road, into Alan Bennett's driveway, they soon become close and Miss Shepherd starts to open up to Alan, which gives him some groundwork to find out more about the extremely private lady. When her true story unfolds, her amazing journey shows why she is the way she is, and it's so sad that her brilliant piano skills went to waste. Anyway, the acting is great from the whole cast and the adapted storyline was well put together by the director. Its not exactly blockbuster material, in terms of a huge budget and big distribution but it's an inspirational true story which will make you laugh and cry till the end. Enjoyable!
Round-Up: It's good to see a small independent movie, make such a profit at the box office, because it really did deserve it. Maggie Smith deserved to win the BAFTA & Golden Globe for her role but she sadly lost out to Jennifer Lawrence for the Golden Globe and Brie Larson for the BAFTA. At 81 years old, and with an impressive career behind her, which started at 1956 in a TV series called the Adventures of Aggie, she's highly respected in her field and with 2 Oscars and 3 Golden Globes, I can truly say that she has had an excellent career to date. Anyway, this movie was directed by Nicholas Hytner, 59, who also brought you the History Boys, Center Stage, The Object Of My Affection, the Crucible and the great Madness of King George, which was his first movie in 1994. As Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings starred in the play of the Lady In The Van, they were the perfect choice for this movie and with Nicholas Hytner directing the play, there really wasn't anybody else who could have worked on this project. I was thoroughly entertained throughout and I have to give Maggie Smith top marks for her brilliant performance.
Budget: $6million Worldwide Gross: $30million
I recommend this movie to people who are into their biography/drama/comedies starring Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings, Jim Broadbent, Roger Allam, Gwen Taylor, Frances de la Tour and James Corden. 7/10
Round-Up: It's good to see a small independent movie, make such a profit at the box office, because it really did deserve it. Maggie Smith deserved to win the BAFTA & Golden Globe for her role but she sadly lost out to Jennifer Lawrence for the Golden Globe and Brie Larson for the BAFTA. At 81 years old, and with an impressive career behind her, which started at 1956 in a TV series called the Adventures of Aggie, she's highly respected in her field and with 2 Oscars and 3 Golden Globes, I can truly say that she has had an excellent career to date. Anyway, this movie was directed by Nicholas Hytner, 59, who also brought you the History Boys, Center Stage, The Object Of My Affection, the Crucible and the great Madness of King George, which was his first movie in 1994. As Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings starred in the play of the Lady In The Van, they were the perfect choice for this movie and with Nicholas Hytner directing the play, there really wasn't anybody else who could have worked on this project. I was thoroughly entertained throughout and I have to give Maggie Smith top marks for her brilliant performance.
Budget: $6million Worldwide Gross: $30million
I recommend this movie to people who are into their biography/drama/comedies starring Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings, Jim Broadbent, Roger Allam, Gwen Taylor, Frances de la Tour and James Corden. 7/10
Awful Disappointment despite Maggie Smith's Bravura Peerformance
badajoz-126 November 2015
Warning: Spoilers
I had seen the play and enjoyed it, both the writing and the excellent acting of Dame Maggie Smith. Believe me, this so-called movie is not a film at all. It is a star vehicle for a tremendously bravura performance by the leading actress, almost like a studio of the thirties giving one of its' leading ladies a blank cheque.
The plot is simple. An old lady (Maggie Smith) travels around North London parking her battered old van and living in squalor in the same place for months on end. Finally when the yellow lines are painted, Alan Bennett the writer (Alex Jennings) allows her to park in his drive - and she stays for fifteen years! The relationship between the two is the heart of the screenplay, or it should be. But, no, we have to open it up as it is a film, and it loses its way dramatically! It becomes a minor mystery story as we discover bit by bit who she was and why she was living as she was. All of which was found out only after her death, as the film says at the end! So the interchange between the two main protagonists gets lost amidst cinematic clichés and other characters putting in their two pennyworth, including Bennett's mother. There is also an attempt (pretty poor it must be said) by the writer to find himself in his writing. Cue a very seedy rent boyish sub theme and so-called coming out, which was not really present in the play and is almost gratuitous and forced in the film.
And why do we have the stage device of two Bennetts - one the writer and the other the 'living' - on screen at once? As one reviewer said, could we not have had a voice over? It is silly and looks terribly stagey as the rest of the film tries to open out and be realistic. All in all a right mess that is not a film at all.
As a postscript, Mr Bennett and his concerns about 'northernness', old ladies (especially his mother) and the details of toilet behaviour are just old hat. What made them funny in the 70s, 80s, and 90s are now almost forgotten, and this piece seems to have been made at least a decade too late. How anyone under 55 can relate to it is beyond me! Your name is on the writing credits, Mr Bennett, and you have ruined your own work, or did the 'script doctors' get at it? Oh dear, what an utter mess.
The plot is simple. An old lady (Maggie Smith) travels around North London parking her battered old van and living in squalor in the same place for months on end. Finally when the yellow lines are painted, Alan Bennett the writer (Alex Jennings) allows her to park in his drive - and she stays for fifteen years! The relationship between the two is the heart of the screenplay, or it should be. But, no, we have to open it up as it is a film, and it loses its way dramatically! It becomes a minor mystery story as we discover bit by bit who she was and why she was living as she was. All of which was found out only after her death, as the film says at the end! So the interchange between the two main protagonists gets lost amidst cinematic clichés and other characters putting in their two pennyworth, including Bennett's mother. There is also an attempt (pretty poor it must be said) by the writer to find himself in his writing. Cue a very seedy rent boyish sub theme and so-called coming out, which was not really present in the play and is almost gratuitous and forced in the film.
And why do we have the stage device of two Bennetts - one the writer and the other the 'living' - on screen at once? As one reviewer said, could we not have had a voice over? It is silly and looks terribly stagey as the rest of the film tries to open out and be realistic. All in all a right mess that is not a film at all.
As a postscript, Mr Bennett and his concerns about 'northernness', old ladies (especially his mother) and the details of toilet behaviour are just old hat. What made them funny in the 70s, 80s, and 90s are now almost forgotten, and this piece seems to have been made at least a decade too late. How anyone under 55 can relate to it is beyond me! Your name is on the writing credits, Mr Bennett, and you have ruined your own work, or did the 'script doctors' get at it? Oh dear, what an utter mess.
'Flowers? What do I want with flowers? They... They only die. I've got enough on my plate without flowers.'
gradyharp19 May 2016
Thank you BBC and TriStar for providing a moment of sanity in the current deluge of noisy, incendiary, absurd plot movies that seem to draw the crowds (and the money) today. THE LADY IN THE VAN is a little jewel of a film, written by brilliant playwright Alan Bennett (Beyond the Fringe, The Madness of King George, The History Boys, etc) – a memoir of sorts, directed by Nicholas Hytner (The History Boys, The Crucible, The Madness of King George, etc), and starring the incomparable Maggie Smith in a role unlike her usual grand dame roles and Alex Jennings in a dual role of Alan Bennett as writer and as the one who experiences life, providing the source of Bennett's writings and plays. The entire cast is superb – especially the tiny cameos by Jim Broadbent, Dominic Cooper, Cecilia Noble, Deborah Findlay, Roger Allam, Clare Hammond, Gwen Taylor, Frances de la Tour and on and on.
The story is summarized here: THE LADY IN THE VAN tells the true story of Alan Bennett's strained friendship with Miss Mary Shepherd (Maggie Smite), an eccentric homeless woman whom Bennett Alex Jennings) befriended in the 1970s before allowing her temporarily to park her Bedford van in the driveway of his Camden home. She stayed there for 15 years. As the story develops Bennett learns that Miss Shepherd is really Margaret Fairchild (died 1989), a former gifted pupil of the pianist Alfred Cortot. She had played Chopin in a promenade concert, tried to become a nun, was committed to an institution by her brother, escaped, had an accident when her van was hit by a motorcyclist for which she believed herself to blame, and thereafter lived in fear of arrest.
Not only is the story funny and touching, it also makes a huge statement about our disregard for the homeless, the manner in which the Catholic church copes with its own problems, and the extraordinary love that develops between Mary and Alan. The music that plays such a significant role is Franz Schubert's Impromptu No. 3 in G-Flat Major, Op.90, D 899 and Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op.11: II. Romanze – Larghetto and III. Rondo - Vivace beautifully played by Clare Hammond - all lovingly embraced and incorporated by the musical score of George Fenton (who also conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra in the film).
This illuminating and entertaining film will provide or restore belief in films as a means of significant statement and joy. Highly Recommended.
The story is summarized here: THE LADY IN THE VAN tells the true story of Alan Bennett's strained friendship with Miss Mary Shepherd (Maggie Smite), an eccentric homeless woman whom Bennett Alex Jennings) befriended in the 1970s before allowing her temporarily to park her Bedford van in the driveway of his Camden home. She stayed there for 15 years. As the story develops Bennett learns that Miss Shepherd is really Margaret Fairchild (died 1989), a former gifted pupil of the pianist Alfred Cortot. She had played Chopin in a promenade concert, tried to become a nun, was committed to an institution by her brother, escaped, had an accident when her van was hit by a motorcyclist for which she believed herself to blame, and thereafter lived in fear of arrest.
Not only is the story funny and touching, it also makes a huge statement about our disregard for the homeless, the manner in which the Catholic church copes with its own problems, and the extraordinary love that develops between Mary and Alan. The music that plays such a significant role is Franz Schubert's Impromptu No. 3 in G-Flat Major, Op.90, D 899 and Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op.11: II. Romanze – Larghetto and III. Rondo - Vivace beautifully played by Clare Hammond - all lovingly embraced and incorporated by the musical score of George Fenton (who also conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra in the film).
This illuminating and entertaining film will provide or restore belief in films as a means of significant statement and joy. Highly Recommended.
A touching emotional sentimental drama of friendship thru difference and learning.
blanbrn3 June 2016
"The Lady in the Van" is one comedy drama that's fun and it entertains in a touching emotional way for the fact that it develops friendship and love in a strange and unexpected way it's really thru difference! Actually this is based on a true story set in England, near London. It involves Miss Shepherd(the top notch and in form Maggie Smith)who's a woman that's past her prime she's now of unknown origin who now and later for an extended stay parks her van in Alan Bennett's(Alex Jennings)driveway and as mentioned lives in that spot a long time in fact up to 15 years! The friendship and meeting has it's growing pains that slowly but surely changes the lives of both forever. The past of both central characters are revealed and the movie takes a path of a rare and touching picture of happiness at being at peace with fate and life before the end. Overall "The Lady in the Van" is one film to enjoy as it makes you want to care about life and people even though if they or the situation seem uncertain and different.
Film not as good as the performances
bob the moo2 July 2016
Somewhat of an acquired taste this film, because it is not without its many weaknesses. The film focuses on Alan Bennett (here played as two characters – himself, and himself the writer) and his interactions with an elderly woman he allowed to live out of a van she parked on his driveway. The nature of the film means it is very Bennett in its tone, and it has an enjoyable buttoned-up feeling to it in the most part. That said it isn't quite as engaging as it really should be. The story doesn't connect up as well as the narration suggests, and it does frequently feel like it is being drawn out more than it can bare – in particular the resolutions, which go on much too long and lose the charm they needed.
The performances more or less carry the film though. Jennings does a great impression of Bennett, but more than that he does give strong performances in both positions. He was the better character, but Smith is great as the lady of the title. She has a lot of energy and well observed presence and humor throughout. I think the thing that shows how good the two leads are, is that we can believe why the other allows the other to be in their lives and be that way. The downside of this is that the two performances are better than the film itself is; so at times they do drive it forward by force of presence, but they cannot do it all – and when performances takes a step back, the film suffers.
The performances more or less carry the film though. Jennings does a great impression of Bennett, but more than that he does give strong performances in both positions. He was the better character, but Smith is great as the lady of the title. She has a lot of energy and well observed presence and humor throughout. I think the thing that shows how good the two leads are, is that we can believe why the other allows the other to be in their lives and be that way. The downside of this is that the two performances are better than the film itself is; so at times they do drive it forward by force of presence, but they cannot do it all – and when performances takes a step back, the film suffers.
Bennett retrospective
gbusby27 November 2015
Well, it's not a retrospective of Alan Bennett's oeuvre as such but it gives an insight into the creative process, juxtaposing it with the story of the woman who stayed in a van on his north London driveway for fifteen years. In many respects, I thought the actor who played Alan Bennett (Alex Jennings) was the star rather than Dame Maggie Smith, who played Miss Shepherd.
The script seemed about fifteen to twenty minutes too long although I'm not sure what could easily have been edited out, certainly not the parts played by Bennett's mother (Gwen Taylor) as they added so much explanatory detail.
The script seemed about fifteen to twenty minutes too long although I'm not sure what could easily have been edited out, certainly not the parts played by Bennett's mother (Gwen Taylor) as they added so much explanatory detail.
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