Tom's Two Cents: Lady in the Van

Those of us who are devoted Maggie Smith fans (and we are legion in number!) probably haven't missed an episode of "Downton Abbey" in six years.  Now with the PBS series winding down--this week the Dowager Countess Grantham made an unexpected exit to the south of France (dare we suggest that she won't return?)--Maggie Smith fanatics are turning to her latest film for solace.  "Lady in the Van," based on a true story written by Alan Bennett, was adapted into a dramatic vehicle for Smith and released early this year as a film.  As a film, it employs the liberty of multiple locations, but it still centers on a beautiful Georgian London residential neighborhood, where an eccentric old bag lady squats in her bright yellow van in front and later the drive of the home of an aspiring young writer, played by Jim Broadbent, whose love/hate relationship with her continues for fifteen years.

Who is this mysterious, fascinating, hideous creature, where did she come from, and how did she get to such a disreputable state in life?  Her back story is tantalizingly thin, told in flashback snippets of her past.  Her youthful involvement in both classical music and the Catholic Church provides some of the most poignant and beautiful moments in the film, yet what carries it is the repartee between herself and her reluctant host, who himself is split into two characters,  the man he is and the writer he wants to be.  If the film is imperfect, as it is, (a bizarre and inappropriate ending jars the dark comic tone of most of it), it is still a beautiful and moving statement about the vulnerability and triumph of the human spirit against insufferable odds. 

That said, it is always a special pleasure to see and hear a great actress at the height of her form and fame, still plying her craft with subtlety and brilliance.  Dame Maggie has many superb moments in this film, but my particular favorite is her entrance into a senior citizen's center (an abandoned church) for tea and cakes, where, after stuffing her pockets with the latter, she takes another in her mouth, sits down abruptly and chews, staring, mesmerized at the young female pianist at the front of the church, who is playing for the group.  For what seems a monumental eternity, Dame Maggie simply chews and stares.  The look on her face alone is quite beyond the price of admission.

"Lady in the Van" is playing in Dallas at the Angelica Mockingbird Station and Plano.  I regret to say it will probably not play here, though it might later open in Greenville and Tyler.  It's worth the trip!