In adapting his memoir “The Lady in the Van” for the screen, Alan Bennett focused on making the film as fragrant as possible – as he writes, “the essence of poverty is damp newspaper.”
The vanbound lady of the piece, Miss Shepherd (Maggie Smith), has her windows papered over with broadsheets and tabloids, with great stacks left over to line the interior of her coach. The film might have made an excellent Smell-O-Vision picture, as Miss Shepherd is a lover of onions, alfresco defecation, and dispensing sour words from her lemon-pucker mouth.
She is the olfactory acquaintance of the playwright Mr. Bennett (Alex Jennings), whose gentle self-deprecation will be familiar to readers of David Sedaris (he’s less funny and more English). He does give an excellent explanation for why he allowed Miss Shepherd’s van to decay in his car park for 15 years: “I’m not a saint, just lazy.”
The only disruption to the sedate, Sunday afternoon direction from Nicholas Hytner is the conceit that Bennett the writer is separate from Bennett the person, with both figures appearing in frame together, bickering (they are differentiated by small variations in costume – a knit tie here, an unbuttoned Oxford collar there). This double life is relevant to a film reviewer who might wish to have the writing half pen the review while the non-writer self goes to watch a better movie.
With little narrative thrust to speak of, Bennett emphasizes the film’s play-like structure, with his on screen avatar often turning to a chorus of neighbors for commentary on his stinking acquaintance. “The Lady in the Van” would’ve done well to devote less attention to an irrelevant subplot with Jim Broadbent as Miss Shepherd’s pathetic blackmailer and more to the provenance and upshot of the young men with whom Bennett enjoys periodic assignations.
Long swathes of screen time also show Bennett wrestling over whether or not Miss Shepherd is a stand-in for his distant mother, which is not a significant enough consideration to necessitate a feature film.
One is left with little to admire beyond Smith’s good performance, and her character’s undiminished irascibility on all topics, especially bathing.
For a moment, the film comes to a better consideration, whether she was broken when denied the opportunity to play piano in the convent where she spent time as a young woman.
When you lose your art it breaks you and this is fertile ground for exploration…. but Hytner quickly overplays his hand by attempting to jam a big ending on a small film.
“The Lady in the Van” is showing at the Sebastiani Theatre. Rated PG-13. Running time 1:44. Visit sebastianitheatre.com.
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