It's been several years, possibly a decade since I saw a play but my wife and I had the opportunity to rectify this when we went to the cinema to see The Lady in the Van. Never before have I been so aware a film in presentation, direction and dialogue was meant for the theatre instead of the camera.
This doesn't take away from the excellent portrayal of the cantankerous old Mary Shepherd by the magnificent Maggie Smith. The great dame is a force to be reckoned as she begrudgingly accepts Christmas gifts from local kids, screams and shrieks at a small street musical ensemble of local children, paints her four-wheeled domicile or dominates her reluctant landlord.
Maggie doesn't play this for laughs, her performance is real and truly human. Yes there are some funny moments but these are usually more smile inducing rather than loud snorts of laughter. More than anything this lady in the van is an enigma. We yearn to know how she became this way and what brought her to this upper middle class road in the London suburb of Camden. From the beginning we have a mystery of sorts yet instead of providing answers the film is a progression of questions regarding her religious influences, musical tastes, family and general hygiene.
Maggies co-star in the production is Alex Jennings as Alan Bennett. He is the man who wrote the book and play the film is based so not surprisingly he gets most of the best lines. There is a device the filmmakers use to enable Bennett to both narrate and portray his character which I didn't like. I don't know if this was also taken from the original play but it felt unnecessarily complicated and more like a gimmick just to be different. Jennings was still very good as a straight man to Smith and we certainly share his frustrations with this elderly squatter.
The major problem I have with the picture is the final 15 minutes when it totally goes off the rails from a solid British drama to something resembling Monty Python. Don't get me wrong, I love the Python films but I found this ending more of an "in joke" for the producers and merely an opportunity to make fun of themselves.
Poignantly the The Lady in the Van is the portrayal of how the elderly are so poorly treated by our modern society. The film offers the juxtaposition of this cranky old lady who will not be told by anyone what to do as opposed to the mother of Alan Bennett who never wants to cause a fuss. One is known by all in the street and although notoriously ill-tempered and clearly suffering from mental health issues is ultimately cared for by strangers and looked after in her time of need. Alan's mother lives alone begging her son to visit over the phone and is only seen by him when she ventures to London or later in a nursing home after she has been badly injured and in a coma.
Are our elderly such a burden that we must shut them away because we cannot cope for their needs? Or are we just hiding them like Dorian Gray and his portrait to stop reminding ourselves of our own mortality? Either way I greatly admire Mary Shepherd for not meekly accepting her fate.
This doesn't take away from the excellent portrayal of the cantankerous old Mary Shepherd by the magnificent Maggie Smith. The great dame is a force to be reckoned as she begrudgingly accepts Christmas gifts from local kids, screams and shrieks at a small street musical ensemble of local children, paints her four-wheeled domicile or dominates her reluctant landlord.
Maggie doesn't play this for laughs, her performance is real and truly human. Yes there are some funny moments but these are usually more smile inducing rather than loud snorts of laughter. More than anything this lady in the van is an enigma. We yearn to know how she became this way and what brought her to this upper middle class road in the London suburb of Camden. From the beginning we have a mystery of sorts yet instead of providing answers the film is a progression of questions regarding her religious influences, musical tastes, family and general hygiene.
Maggies co-star in the production is Alex Jennings as Alan Bennett. He is the man who wrote the book and play the film is based so not surprisingly he gets most of the best lines. There is a device the filmmakers use to enable Bennett to both narrate and portray his character which I didn't like. I don't know if this was also taken from the original play but it felt unnecessarily complicated and more like a gimmick just to be different. Jennings was still very good as a straight man to Smith and we certainly share his frustrations with this elderly squatter.
The major problem I have with the picture is the final 15 minutes when it totally goes off the rails from a solid British drama to something resembling Monty Python. Don't get me wrong, I love the Python films but I found this ending more of an "in joke" for the producers and merely an opportunity to make fun of themselves.
Poignantly the The Lady in the Van is the portrayal of how the elderly are so poorly treated by our modern society. The film offers the juxtaposition of this cranky old lady who will not be told by anyone what to do as opposed to the mother of Alan Bennett who never wants to cause a fuss. One is known by all in the street and although notoriously ill-tempered and clearly suffering from mental health issues is ultimately cared for by strangers and looked after in her time of need. Alan's mother lives alone begging her son to visit over the phone and is only seen by him when she ventures to London or later in a nursing home after she has been badly injured and in a coma.
Are our elderly such a burden that we must shut them away because we cannot cope for their needs? Or are we just hiding them like Dorian Gray and his portrait to stop reminding ourselves of our own mortality? Either way I greatly admire Mary Shepherd for not meekly accepting her fate.