Downton Abbey’s Smith right at home in The Lady in the Van
What is the mark of a great actor? How about playing the parts of a dowager and a destitute woman with equal conviction and credibility?
The thespian in question is, of course, the incomparable and indomitable Maggie Smith, a double Oscar winner. But even before she undertook her role as the proper Violet Crawley, The Dowager Countess of Grantham on the TV series Downton Abbey, Smith played the part of the homeless Miss Shepherd in The Lady in the Van on the West End London stage in 1999.
Now this “mostly true” story of English playwright/screenwriter Alan Bennett’s connection with Miss Shepherd has come to the screen, with Smith reprising her stage role. As for the play, the film was written by Bennett and directed by Nicholas Hytner.
The movie has its moments of great whimsy, but also heartfelt, moving sequences wherein the two unlikely principals try to connect with one another.
This saga goes back to 1973 when Miss Shepherd (Smith) asks Bennett (Alex Jennings), if she can temporarily park her beatup van in the driveway of his tony London street. He reluctantly agrees.
What was intended to be a brief layover for Miss Shepherd and her decrepit, shrieking-yellow van turns into a 15-year stay, much to the amusement — and chagrin, when she scares the kids in the ’hood — of neighbours.
Needless to say, Bennett, at first rather flummoxed with the intrusion, eventually develops a rapport with his temporary tenant. But Bennett’s emotions are so mixed up, his character is portrayed by two personas on screen, each arguing with the other about Miss Shepherd and the nature of her story.
One of the Bennetts explains that he is “about to do her a good turn — but with thoughts of strangulation.”
While Miss Shepherd’s origins remain in doubt, it appears as if her life choices are guided by the Virgin Mary. It also seems that she wasn’t always an eccentric van-squatter, that she may have also been an aspiring and talented classical pianist in her younger years.
It’s likely that this sort of scenario could have only taken place in England, where characters like Miss Shepherd are not only tolerated but sometimes even celebrated. Miss Shepherd and her van would not have lasted more than a few days on our shores before being carted off to a home for the unhinged.
The beauty of this film is that both characters unexpectedly evolve as a result of their chance encounter.
Credit acclaimed British stage veteran Jennings for keeping pace with the masterful, octogenarian Smith — no small task. And credit director Hytner — who also collaborated with writer Bennett on the films The Madness of King George and The History Boys — for keeping it real and for avoiding the maudlin. Under the aegis of a lesser director, this could have easily veered into shlock Hallmark TV movie-of-the-week terrain.
AN OFFBEAT OFFERING FROM IRELAND
The 24th Ciné Gael film festival keeps on rolling with the screening of the bittersweet dramedy You’re Ugly Too, Friday at 7:15 p.m. at Concordia’s J.A. DeSève Cinema.
Its title derived from that old doctor joke about needing a second opinion, this offbeat, touching tale focuses on the unlikely
alliance between an uncle and his niece. He is fresh out of prison and is the last resort to take care of his 11-year-old niece, after his sister and her mother have passed away.
They take up residence in a trailer park in the Irish midlands, but problems abound from the get-go. She is refused admission into a local school because of her narcolepsy issues. He is unable to find steady work because of his criminal record.
Matters become even more complex when he takes a shine to the married and abused Belgian woman and teacher — as she does to him — in the next-door trailer.
An impressive feature-film debut for Irish writer/director Mark Noonan, who had previously distinguished himself on the short-film front. Performances by Aidan Gillen as the ex-con uncle, Erika Sainte as the alluring Belgian teacher and unhappily married neighbour and, particularly, Lauren Kinsella as the street-smart, mouthy niece are all rock-solid.