Maggie Smith brings an irresistible irascible charm to her role as a homeless woman who parks her van the driveway of playwright Alan Bennett and then stays for 15 years, in THE LADY IN THE VAN. Although this is a far different character from her role as the Dowager Countess, “Downton Abbey” fans will delight in finding a similar comic brilliance in Smith’s Miss Shepard, with the same sense of her own importance and an iron determination to have her own way. The quirky and charming THE LADY IN THE VAN showcases Smith’s considerable skill in dominating every scene – in fact, the whole film.
Nicholas Hytner, who also directed HISTORY BOYS, brings a lot of dry, self-deprecating British humor to this screen adaptation of Bennett’s partly biographical play. Although the story is narrated by and told from the point of view of playwright Alan Bennett (Alex Jennings), it is Smith’s eccentric, maddening character that steals the show.
The film manages the difficult task of walking a line between comedy and pathos by not sentimentalizing Smith’s Miss Shepard. Reprising her stage role, Smith is a delight as this difficult yet intriguing old woman. Hytner also brings in some cast members from his HISTORY BOYS, such as Dominic Cooper, in small roles.
To its credit, the film avoids sentimentalizing homelessness or mental illness,in part by keeping a distinctly British dry-humor tone. An early scene deals in a frank, funny way with an inescapable consequence of living in a van without a shower. As Bennett describes it, the mix of odors trailing in Miss Shepard’s wake are distinctive, including the onions she is fond of eating and the lavender powder she is equally fond of using to disguise the onions and other smells. As delivered by actor Alex Jennings as Bennett, the observation is both pointed and very funny.
The story mixes fact and fiction, which Jennings’ character bluntly tells the audience. Bennett’s character is divided into two parts – the writer and the private man – which allows the actor to engage in comic conversations with himself – about his work, his flagging personal life, his conflicted feelings about his aging mother and the lady in the van living in his driveway.
The story is set in 1960s London, a time when tolerance towards the homeless has become a fashionable attitude but being gay is still something the playwright might keep under wraps. The eccentric, bossy lady living in the van, Miss Shepard, had taken up residence already on the leafy, prosperous street when Bennett bought a house. The neighbors express a pitying tolerance of the homeless woman while silently hoping she would move on. Strong-willed, rude and odd, the old lady parks in front of one house after another, until the homeowners irritate her into moving down the block. Those irritations include by playing music or interrupting her with offers of food, which she takes but for which she never thanks them.
When street cleaners pester her to move her now-non-functional van, she basically browbeats the playwright into letting her park the van in his driveway. Temporarily, of course. For 15 years.
Despite having little hesitation about manipulating people to get her way, Miss Shepard is surprisingly secretive about her past and even who she is, telling people she is “incognito.” A man who appears creeping around one night, Mr. Underwood (Jim Broadbent), hints at a sinister secret but we learn little about her history until late in the film. An early scene suggests a traffic accident is part of why this secretive old woman is living in a van.
The reserved, almost reclusive Bennett is struggling in his work as a playwright, and also with what to do about his clinging aging mother, who would like to move in with him. It is a prospect the playwright dreads, although he ends up with another old lady, a stranger, camped out on his doorstep. Trying to establish a personal life, the gay Bennett brings home a series of nice looking young men but never seems to be able to quite speak up and make a connection.
The story contrasts Bennett’s relationship with his mother and the lady in the van, as well as coping with his own struggles as a writer and to build a personal life for himself. Miss Shepard is never forthcoming about her past although there are intriguing hints that she was once a nun and has a special connection to music. Despite her rudeness, Bennett becomes protective of her, even possessive, and begrudgingly fond.
Bennett’s two-part character, both played by Jennings with perfect low-key humor, provides a running comic dialog, while expressing Bennett’s inner thoughts. Sometimes those inner thoughts are to stand up to Miss Shepard, who bullies him mercilessly, although the polite, reserved Bennett never does. Despite their long acquaintance, the pair only ever call each other Mr. Bennett and Miss Shepard, and Bennett even bristles at a social worker who is assigned to the old woman, when she calls her Mary, informing her that it is not her real name which he has learned is Margaret – he thinks. In some ways, the social worker prompts Bennett to learn more about the woman who lived in his driveway all these years.
The film takes a turn towards whimsy at its end, which might irritate some viewers but fits well with determinedly unsentimental and comic tone. For those who relish low-key British humor, THE LADY IN THE VAN provides a pleasant ride, especially with the incomparable Maggie Smith at the wheel.
THE LADY IN THE VAN OPENS IN ST. LOUIS ON FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5
OVERALL RATING: 4 OUT OF 5 STARS
