Plot
A man forms an unexpected bond with a transient woman living in her car that's parked in his driveway.

Release Year: 2015

Rating: 6.9/10 (1,419 voted)

Critic's Score: 67/100

Director: Nicholas Hytner

Stars: Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings, Dominic Cooper

Storyline
A man forms an unexpected bond with a transient woman living in her car that's parked in his driveway.

Cast:
Maggie Smith - Miss Shepherd
Dominic Cooper - Theatre Actor
Jim Broadbent - Underwood
James Corden - Street Trader
Stephen Campbell Moore - Doctor
Eleanor Matsuura - American Journalist
Frances de la Tour - Ursula Vaughan Williams
Claire Foy - Lois, Social Worker
Russell Tovey - Man with Earring
Roger Allam - Rufus
Alex Jennings - Alan Bennett
Samuel Anderson - Jehovah's Witness
Selina Cadell - Lady Wiggin
Sacha Dhawan - Doctor Malik
Dermot Crowley - Priest

Taglines: A mostly true story

Country: UK

Language: English

Release Date: 15 January 2016

Filming Locations: Gloucester Crescent, Camden Town, London, England, UK

Technical Specs

Runtime: 104 min

Trivia:
Nicholas Hytner told The Guardian that, while filming in Camden Town, the crew arrived on set one morning 'to find the van had been broken into, and that two people had spent the weekend inside it "having a good time with each other". This necessitated the removal of all the van's contents - which had been dirtied up for artistic reasons - to be "deep-cleaned, and then made filthy again".' See more »

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Author:

Rating: 8/10

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.

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