Pssst, want to check out The Lady in the Van in our new look?
Information
- Year
- 2015
- Runtime
- 104 min.
- Director
- Nicholas Hytner
- Genres
- Drama, Comedy, Biography
- Rating *
- 6.7
- Votes *
- 8,924
- Checks
- 1,118
- Favs
- 49
- Dislikes
- 11
- Favs/checks
- 4.4% (1:23)
- Favs/dislikes
- 4:1
Top comments
-
marlarkey
Brilliant.... saw the play and this film version is great.... Maggie Smith's performance is amazing. 9 years 2 months ago -
Siskoid
Playwright Alan Bennett (The History Boys) adapted his mostly-autobiographical The Lady in the Van for the screen, about an old homeless woman (here played by the powerhouse that is Maggie Smith) who parked her van in his driveway for 15 years. While the intrigue would have us care about why the woman is where she is, Bennett is honest with himself and also explores the self-centeredness of a biographical writer, with two Bennetts inhabiting the scenes (the one who lives and the one who writes about it), one of a couple of stylistic touches that make the film interesting beyond its subject matter. With a perhaps unhealthy dose of auto derision, Bennett makes sure we do not think he is a saint for helping "Miss Shepherd", and his catharsis is essentially arrived at by observing someone else seek forgiveness and redemption (though he may not have known it at the time). Comic and tragic, this is a strange slice of life to be sure. 6 years 11 months ago -
