The Lady in the Van

THE LADY IN THE VAN (12)

D: Nicholas Hytner

Sony/Tristar/BBC (Nicholas Hytner, Damian Jones & Kevin Loader)

UK/US 2015

104 mins

Comedy/Drama

W: Alan Bennett [based on his play]

DP: Andrew Dunn

Ed: Tariq Anwar

Mus: George Fenton

Maggie Smith (Miss Mary Shepherd / Margaret Fairchild), Alex Jennings (Alan Bennett), Roger Allam (Rufus), Deborah Findlay (Pauline), Jim Broadbent (Underwood)

A rather pedestrian adaptation of a stage play, based on events from its writer Alan Bennett's life, when he allowed an elderly woman to live in her dilapidated van on his driveway outside his London home.

Maggie Smith's cantankerous performance carries the film, which misses a trick by failing to capture any humour in the scenes where the main male character, based on the writer Alan Bennett himself, has imaginary conversations with his conscience.

Not a bad film, but not worth going out of your way for. It just doesn't motor along the way a stage play of the same material would.

6/10