...for the late, great Maggie Smith, The Lady in the Van was arguably the best of some twenty years of cameos and curtain calls…she makes a complex figure of Mary Shepherd, who parked her van in Alan Bennett’s driveway and remained there for 15 years...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 28, 2024

The Lady in the Van succeeds at exactly what it’s trying to attempt. It’s a feel-good story about a captivating individual who just shows up on your doorstep one day.

| Original Score: B+ | Aug 2, 2024

The Lady in the Van shows us that respect and kindness is always the right way to go.

| Sep 13, 2021

A character study of a difficult person contained in a movie that often errs on the side of sentiment, particularly in its fanciful final moments, but avoids caricature.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 3, 2021

Warm, witty and wonderful, The Lady In The Van (and the Dame) is a pure delight!

| Nov 29, 2019

It's laugh-out-loud funny at times yet simultaneously layered and thought-provoking.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 31, 2019

The Lady in the Van provides a pleasant ride, especially with the incomparable Maggie Smith at the wheel.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 7, 2019

A film suited more to her fans and theatre buffs, it's hard to imagine there being any point to The Lady in the Van onscreen without Maggie Smith.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 18, 2019

A large part of the charm and the appeal of the film is seeing how Smith has really honed and grown into the performance in the ensuing years since her first rendition.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 8, 2019

Overall, this warm gem is energized by the captivating Smith that instills this beleaguered Brit bag lady with indescribable exuberance.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 9, 2018

he Lady in the Van offers more fourth wall-breaking narrative devices than a Tarantino fever dream, but since we're never that invested in the characters or the story, it doesn't add up to anything but a self-satisfied distraction.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 22, 2018

"The Lady in the Van" stars Maggie Smith. That almost says it all.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 22, 2018

At its best, The Lady in the Van exposes the hypocritical, torn feelings many of us experience around the homeless, old age, and how women are 'supposed' to be.

| Nov 20, 2017

The similar lightning-in-a-bottle formula to Philomena doesn't quite pan out here - feeling nagging and bothersome instead.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Nov 5, 2017

it's Dame Maggie's show all the way, and she throws herself into it with the kind of gusto the British use to freshen up a character you've seen them do before.

| Oct 26, 2017

This real cinematic pleasure is one of the best British films of the year.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 26, 2017

Maggie Smith as Miss Shepherd is plenty on her own.

| Aug 21, 2017

The Lady in the Van is quite enjoyable, but has a significant flaw.

| Aug 8, 2017

The Lady in the Van is a delicate little piece, one that could so easily be overdone. Thankfully, Bennett, Hytner and, of course, the incomparable Dame Maggie refuse to turn the film into the expected Best Marigold Hotel mush.

| Jun 20, 2017

The Lady in the Van might be preaching, one guesses, about behaving kindly and without judgment toward strangers. The highs and lows that shape it, however, feel unearned.

| Jan 10, 2017