Am I Missing Something?

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

When "The Lady in the Van" begins, it says it's MOSTLY based on a true story. How much liberty Alan Bennett took with the actual story is anyone's guess, though apparently he DID allow a homeless and mentally ill woman to live in his driveway in her van. Why isn't 100% clear, as she was smelly, nasty, argumentative and had little positive about her. Fortunately, Maggie Smith did a brilliant job playing her and was very believable.As far as the story goes, there isn't much more to it. In the London suburb of Camden in 1970, Mary (or Margaret) began to become a bit of a nuisance in town. Bennett felt sorry for her and slowly forged an odd but distant relationship with her. Years after her death, he wrote a play about it...and the film is based on that play. The story has many unusual and surreal plot devices, such as having TWO Bennetts interacting and arguing with each other during the story. I think this film would appeal much more to older Brits than anyone else. That's because in the UK, Bennett is a famous writer and actor and is loved and respected. Here in the US, most folks have never heard of him or his groundbreaking show, "Beyond the Fringe". As for me, I found the film mildly interesting and I loved the performances....but the whole was not nearly as satisfying.

What a beautiful film. I can't understand how some reviewers have given it such low marks. You can almost smell Maggie Smith through the telly and the two Alan's are just perfect. As the story unfolds and more mysteries abound but are not revealed, the intrigue based around these two characters grows. "Hold my Hand... it's clean" sprung tears and made this film simply perfect.

This was listed under 'comedy' on Netflix and my son chose it for us to watch together, after I insisted we watch something other than Pokemon... He thought it was going to be in the same David Walliams vein of The Boy In The Dress etc. It's not that kind of 'comedy' - and while almost all of it is family-friendly (just a couple of big swears), the central theme and wry observations from Alan Bennett will either go over the heads of little ones or will just come across as dull. The aforementioned Mr B is kind of a marmite writer in that he divides the audience. I find him smug and clever, without ever provoking more than a minor smile. It's the Carla Lane-esque summary of "Life" that I object to in his style. Things make him think (which is good) but inevitably he seems to conclude that his life is just boring and he's not living it enough etc. Quit moaning about not living and live it. Or, just quit moaning and accept that you'll never bungee jump in New Zealand or whatever "Life" Aside from my feelings towards Bennett himself, this was an enjoyable, if bemusing, film. Maggie Smith is impressive as the frankly unpleasant eponymous Lady.It's clear she has her problems, I just find it tragic, for her, that it take so long for them to be dealt with.Not exactly a typical odd-couple film.

I'm going to keep this brief as I don't want to add any spoilers. If you watch the trailer you will generally get the story quite quickly but it drags out a bit for 1 hour and 40 minutes. The acting is good but I wasn't impressed with the amount of swearing in it. For parents to take young children in (which I didn't but saw others) and then to have have "F" swear words mentioned in a 12a is pretty poor. I wouldn't recommend this for children and should be aimed at the 15 certification. I think there are times when our children are being desensitised to real events when they pick up words, actions and poor behaviour based on a movie. I know the BBFC has given it a 12a and left the decision to parents but from my experience a lot of parents are so naive about these things and then wonder why their child ends up swearing when they've just taken them to a movie full of it.