The Lady In The Van

This review may contain spoilers!

Not even Maggie Smith can make this dry British comedy entertaining. I would give The Lady In The Van a 4/10.

What was really engaging about this film was the backstory of Miss Shepherd, it was made so engaging by unpacking a story about death, musical talent supressed by religious order and the mental tortures experienced by Miss Shepherd as a result of these things.This film had a great score, the classical range displayed in this film really worked well with the story.

Roger Allam, who played Rufus, is exceptionally witty in this film; Allam's role is rather self absorbed but also has some really funny insightful lines in this film. Pandora Colin, who played Fiona Perry, presented a character that worked to what the narrative was saying about middle class everyday people quite well; she was very unobservant but acted kindly towards Miss Shepherd to make herself feel better. Frances de la Tour, who played Mrs Vaughan Williams, was fantastic as the street's resident gossip; de la Tour's very exaggerated and almost mocking tone made her a fun character in this film. Cecilia Noble, who played Miss Briscoe, was one of the funniest characters in the film; the scenes between her and  Jennings resulted in some of the most entertaining exchanges in the film.

However the best performance came from Maggie Smith, who played Miss Shepherd. Smith had some really fun dialogue in this film and presented her character as quite peculiar and full of witticisms. I liked seeing her play the scenes in which her character suffers terror at the memory of the man who died in front of her, you feel afraid and sad for her. Frankly the scenes where Smith plays the more dramatic elements of the film is where her performance really comes to life and where The Lady In The Van will really hook you.

For a film that is so centred upon comedy it isn't very funny, I found myself laughing only a couple of times throughout the entire feature. I also hated how the narrative was told through Alan Bennett arguing with two versions of himself; it resulted in a very narcissistic tone to the film. The ending for this film came very abruptly and seemed over the top and absurd, beyond this the story itself was very predictable and holds no surprises for the average viewer. The cinematography in this film is extremely static, I wish beyond anything that the camera had moved more or been framed better to make a film that was the least bit exciting. The editing was just as bad, the cuts were slow and didn't give the film anything other than a slow dragged out pace.

Jim Broadbent, who played Underwood, is quite an exaggerated and over the top antagonist in this film; I hated that he confessed everything right at the end of the film because it honestly made no sense for his role to make that choice. Clare Hammond, who played Young Margaret Fairchild, should probably have had more of a focus in the flashbacks; these scenes were interesting and I felt like the film was doing itself a disservice by not utilising them more. Alex Jennings, who played Alan Bennett, was an awful protagonist for this film; his unbearable droning voice and dislikeable character rendered the narrative of this film extremely stale. Deborah Findlay, who played Pauline, gave a very artificial performance; her chemistry with Allam wasn't there and her line delivery simply didn't match up to his or Smith's. Dominic Cooper, who played an Actor, absolutely baffles me in terms of his presence in this film; there's really no feasible reason or purpose behind Cooper's cameo. Tom Klenerman, who played Tom Perry, isn't a very noteworthy child actor; his screen presence often leads him to the background. Gwen Taylor, who played Mam, has very little chemistry with Jennings in this film resulting in a mother/son relationship that isn't very convincing; beyond this her dementia performance is extremely weak and one of the worst that I've seen. Claire Foy, who played lois, has very little screen presence in this film; her character is immediately forgettable and her interactions with Smith and Jennings not very impressionable. James Corden, who played Market Trader, is a cameo that is exceptionally fleeting; what makes this cameo bad is that you literally see very part of it in the trailer for this film. David Calder, who played Leo Fairchild, isn't given enough focus in this film; there is potential with this performance and the story behind this character but it is never used to the film's advantage.