Butler's Cinema Scene

Alex Jennings, Maggie Smith

“THE LADY IN THE VAN”  My rating: B

104 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

Imagine Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess  from “Downton Abbey” as an imperious, demanding bag lady.

That’s the premise of “The Lady in the Van,” and it is less off putting than this description suggests.

For one thing, it’s based on real events.  Playwright Alan Bennett, who wrote the screenplay from his memoir, was for years host to Miss Shepherd, an old lady who lived in his London driveway in a series of rusting vans.

For this act of charity he was routinely dismissed by his ungrateful guest, who had her own way of doing things and saw no reason to change. Apparently she believed that this preferential treatment was rightfully hers.

The film from Nicholas Hytner (“The History Boys,” “The Madness of King George”) chronicles that bizarre relationship, which went on for 15 years.

There’s a temptation to regard Bennett (played by Alex Jennings) as some sort of saint. (After all, this “houseguest” saw to her bodily functions simply by squatting in the drive.)

So that we’ll know that Bennett wasn’t a holy fool or a complete sucker, he has written into the screeenplay conversations with himself.

Maggie Smith

Alan Bennett the artist sits at his desk writing, observing life on the suburban London street and making catty comments.  He’s an unsentimental pragmatist.

He shares this space with Alan Bennett the nice-guy, who must deal with Miss Shepherd and his bemused/appalled neighbors, and who hasn’t the courage or the will to give this vagrant the brush-off.

Thanks to split-screen f/x, Jennings plays both versions of Bennett. It’s a bit cheesy, but does make the case that a misanthrope lurks in even the most charitable of us, and vice versa.

How did Miss Shepherd come to be the eccentric wacko who paints her vans school-bus yellow and dresses like an Eskimo even in summer?

Well, that’s the mystery at the film’s heart. Answers are slowly provided.

The main reason to see “Lady” is to bask once again in the glory of Maggie Smith. Her Miss Shepherd is both maddening and weirdly endearing. Her manias are equal parts madness and amusement. She’s perfectly willing to bite the hand that feeds her, but in moments of terrified vulnerability (there aren’t many), our hearts go out to her.

Not many actresses could pull this off.  Dame Maggie makes it look easy.

| Robert W. Butler