Maggie Smith has had a long and varied career, with countless stage triumphs and two Oscars on her shelf. But these days she’s become known mostly for her role on “Downton Abbey,” where her upper-class one-liners pierce the hearts of anyone caught in her proximity.
She must have relished the title role of “The Lady in the Van.” Here she plays a homeless woman who sets up residence in a barely-drivable van, parking it on the street in a tony London neighborhood.
Smith, who played this role on stage when the play was produced in 1999, still has plenty of one-liners. But her disheveled and unhygienic character is in another time zone from “Downton Abbey.”
“The Lady in the Van” is a memoir by the esteemed British writer Alan Bennett (“The History Boys”), who based the story on something that happened to him. For 15 years, his street — and eventually his own driveway — became home to a cantankerous woman who felt no inclination to leave.
In the film, Bennett is played by Alex Jennings. Actually Jennings sometimes plays two Bennetts on screen: the man who interacts with others, and the author who never strays from his typewriter. They don’t always get along.
Various people wander through this ongoing saga, and gradually we get bits of information about how the lady came to be in this situation. One backstory involves a limited, but vivid, appearance by Jim Broadbent.
The encounters between Bennett and the lady are well-written and often witty. But there’s something bland about it all, as though the edges had all been rounded-off and made pleasant.
Director Nicholas Hytner, who also did Bennett’s “Madness of King George,” seems content to steer this material into mildly crowd-pleasing territory. Given some of the subject matter, that’s an odd choice.
Because Bennett’s own character in the film is reserved and well-mannered, it leaves room for Maggie Smith to carve out a bigger-than-life character. The lady in the van is demanding, and often rude. She can’t allow her nondescript vehicle to simply sit there, she has to paint it an eyeball-peeling shade of yellow. (The neighbors are not amused.)
Smith is such a great technician that she knows how to take this lady from comedy to tragedy. But without a solid chassis, this film can’t offer her the proper support.
“The Lady in the Van” (2½ stars)
Maggie Smith gets a colorful role as a cantankerous homeless woman in Alan Bennett’s true story of how such a lady set up residence in his driveway for 15 years. The film has its witty moments, although it seems too smoothly rounded-off to be really memorable.
Rating: PG-13, for subject matter
Showing: Sundance, Meridian, Lincoln Square
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
