THE LADY IN THE VAN
Director Nicholas Hytner
104 minutes Cert 13
The film is a snippet of autobiography concerning the writer Alan Bennett’s bond with a homeless woman who parked her van in his driveway and stayed for 15 years.
A plethora of British actors give wonderful cameo performances, but the stars are Alex Jennings as Bennett and Dame Maggie Smith as Mary, the derelict woman. The film has humour, but it is definitely not a comedy and is actually, as with much of Bennett’s writing, quite cynical and destructive. At one level it recognises the nobility of human beings but nevertheless probes the issue of caring for the needy. Should Bennett care for this waif and stray or not? And if not he, then who? These are important questions for our time. Who cares for the unlovely?
