AVClub: Dame Maggie Smith’s bitter, deathless rivalry with her Best Exotic Marigold Hotel costar Dame Judi Dench reaches another milestone with The Lady In The Van, where Smith, presumably seething with jealousy over Dench’s opportunity to play an elderly woman whose life has been ruined by the Catholic Church in Philomena, plays an elderly homeless woman whose life has been kinda-sorta ruined by the Catholic Church, albeit in a more genteel fashion. As in Philomena, the woman in question remains faithful to her chosen religion despite the ways the institution has wronged her—and as in Philomena, any disbelief over this situation is supposed to be mitigated by the film’s basis in fact.
Neil at Skewed and Reviewed really enjoyed the film as well as the acting as he said that it showed that everyone has a story to tell.
A touching story that's both convincing and sweet, with a real emphasis on wit and heart over simple narrative.
Full review by Carlos Menjivar on Popzara Press
EW: Some 15 years after starring in the West End play of the same name, Maggie Smith returns to her role as the titular Lady in the Van, playing a real-life homeless woman known as Miss Shepherd, who parked the van she slept in on writer Alan Bennett’s street. Bennett, who’s played in the film version by Alex Jennings, offered to let Miss Shepherd move her van onto his driveway for a few weeks back in the early ‘70s. She ended up staying for 15 years.
