The Lady in the Van- 2015
Director Nicholas Hytner
Starring Maggie Smith
Scott’s Review #610
Reviewed January 19, 2017
Grade: B
Maggie Smith can do no wrong, and I will happily enjoy watching her in anything- anytime. Since the 1950s, this lady deserves a starring role in film.
Utterly distinctive, as legendary actress Bette Davis was, Smith has a style purely her own. Her facial expressions and exasperated gasps make her one of the great film stars.
The Lady in the Van (2015) is made specifically for her, but beyond her talents, the movie is a decent, if very safe, offering.
It lacks the depth it could have.
Written by Alan Bennett, the film tells the true story of Mary Shepherd, an older woman living in a broken-down van, who befriends Bennett and eventually lives in his driveway for fifteen years before her inevitable death.
Set in northern London, a quaint and gorgeous part of the world, Mary harbors a deep secret involving her van and is revealed to have been a star piano pupil in her day.
Smith has no qualms about playing unflattering characters.
Shepherd is grizzled, abrupt, and rude, but Smith puts a lot of heart into her too, so the audience senses her vulnerability and falls in love with her.
With her sad, protruding blue eyes, wrinkles for miles, and chirpy voice, Smith is fantastic at giving her all to the role.
The rest of the cast plays their roles adequately but are limited and overshadowed at every turn. Most notable is Jim Broadbent’s wasted talent, appearing in a small and quite meaningless role.
Besides Smith’s brilliant performance, The Lady in the Van lacks layers.
The story is good, but we never see many of Mary’s struggles. How does she afford food? How is she not sick? The film skims over the darker elements of homelessness in favor of a lighthearted tale.
Fine, but what about her inevitable issues?
The film mentions other, less important stories but doesn’t fully explore them. Alex speaks to what looks like his twin brother, but is it his alter ego?
Young men come and go at night, so the presumption is that Alex is gay, and in the end, we do see Alex living with a man, but why is this so vaguely written? Why mention it at all?
This story would have been more interesting to explore, given that the real Alex Bennett wrote the film.
Other side stories are introduced but remain on the surface.
Alex’s mother suffers from Alzheimer’s, but this is not explored much, and Mary’s brother, who institutionalized her at a young age, offers no explanation as to why this was done; she had a mental illness, but the brother’s motivations are not clear.
I wanted more from the supporting characters than was offered.
Still, the bottom line is that The Lady in the Van (2015) is a Maggie Smith film, and any in which she has the lead role is pretty damned good for that reason alone.
