The Lady in the Van

An enjoyable but disappointingly shallow 100 minutes that needs to rely on more than just star power and a 'true story' label.

Maggie Smith's fun but I didn't really like the movie. I found the characters quite unlikable. It all felt pretentious, clunky & irritating. It all made sense when I found out that the screenplay was written by the author of the book/protagonist in the film. It became clear how self-indulgent & masturbatory so much of it was. The story at the heart of it - about the lady in the van - is good, but most of the rest of it was tiresome & not enjoyable. A waste of a potentially good movie.

Strong performances from Smith and Jennings, and a few thoroughly amusing moments. Unfortunately, it's all rather pedestrian; the characters are majoritively unlikable and it goes on a little too long.

I like Bennett and there's just enough little nuggets of him at his best here. Efforts to force drama onto what should've been a simple comedy don't work and at times it's somewhat laborious. Smith and Jennings are both very fine though, and although much of the complaints about this film often seem to centre around how unlikable the characters are, I found them to be comfortingly the opposite in an odd British kind of way. In fact the more I reflect on this one, the more I quite like it.

This could have made an interesting short film but feels bloated as a feature, which might explain some of the ridiculous side "personalities" of Mr Bennett.

Was this supposed to show how kind & tolerant the British people are? There was absolutely nothing charming about this obnoxious old woman. The man letting her squat in his front yard lacked any sort of a backbone. There is nothing admirable about his living in a fantasy world & accepting her foul disrespect year after year. It is not endearing nor heartwarming for a crazy old biddy to take dumps in your front yard, stinking up every place she goes & forever act the fool. Absolute rubbish!

weak because it's not Shepherd's story. It's the story of an author using a person's life to put words on a page. But missing the darkness that would make such a tale engaging, still trying to fake being the woman's tale. It's repeated in the film that Bennett is "of two minds" and I agree. There's two minds to this film and they never converge.

I enjoyed The Lady in the Van. The story was sweet and real. Maggie Smith is such a great actress. I normally can't see her as anything other than a rich, British artistocrat but she totally captured this role. Her character was infuriating, heartwarming, and facinating all at once. Alex Jennings, who played the writer of this memoir, was fantastic. I liked how the film portrayed him as gay but also showed how the world changed around him in relation to his orientation.

This movie is quite literally shit. Avoid at all costs.

This is a quirky and amusing watch, based on a true story I believe. Its a pleasant British film that I enjoyed.

A movie about an obnoxious old lady who imposes her rancid self, and her effluent, on a London neighborhood. It actually picks up for a bit toward the end when it gets into her past, but the rest is just a failed, uncomfortable attempt at humor. There's nothing endearing about her.

Heartwarming story about the lost pre-Thatcherite world of everyday North London arty types.

This film was more interesting as a biopic of Alan Bennett, than of the old lady living in his driveway. I can buy the heartbreaking story that a traumatic event can send a mentally unstable person off the rails and screw up their entire life; I just didn't enjoy Maggie Smith's character or scenes, or find enough redeeming features to get me on her side. The story did not have enough driving forces - it's all a bit too British and polite. Looking forward to the gun-toting US remake though.

Harmless, but pointless. I didn't enjoy it, but it wasn't actively bad.

Maggie Smith can do anything -- even save this rickety vehicle from a case of the terminal cutes. I'll take bitchery over curdled whimsy any day. I only wish the movie felt the same.

i put this in the same genre as the virtual fireplace

Caring, which is not a word I like, is about shit.

Entertaining enough- amusing and poignant.

Only Bennett could make a story out of so little.

"The Lady in the Van" Writer Alan Bennet (who also starred in) tells the true story of Miss Mary Shepherd, an eccentric homeless woman, who wandered London in her run-down van for years. She eventually cons Alan Jennings (Bennett) into allowing her to park the van in his driveway "temporarily", to avoid disagreements with local residents and the constable. She ends up staying for fifteen years and develops a strained relationship with him. In this veddy, veddy British comedy-drama, Miss

Maggie Smith was great as the van lady, as she is in just about everything she does, but The Lady in the Van (2015) wouldn't have been as enjoyable if it wasn't for the two of Alex Jennings!

It's no worse than interesting, with Maggie Smith giving a command performance. Still feels more like a play born of some annecedotes.