ViewGuide

Created May 12, 2016 11:28PM PST • Edited May 13, 2016 09:41AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Pretty Bad 1.5

   Even the great Maggie Smith can’t save The Lady in the Van. Let’s repeat: Dame Maggie can’t save it! Perhaps that’s because she plays an angry old woman who’s beyond saving, sad as that common sight is.

   Disclosure: I saw The Lady in the Van on the little tilt-down screens of a 737. It kinda put me to sleep.

4. Acting

   OK 2.5

   Dame Maggie Smith is as great an actor as any who has ever lit up the screen. She thus gives an estimable performance as the angry and sad Miss Mary Shepherd / Margaret Fairchild.

   Alex Jennings plays Alan Bennett, the real-life author of this autobiographical tale, wanly.

   Jim Broadbent pops up also.

5. Male Stars OK 2.5

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Barely OK 2.0

8. Male Costars Barely OK 2.0

10. Film

    Pretty Bad 1.5

    Nicholas Hytner’s film of Alan Bennett’s screenplay, taken from his lauded stage play, fails its transition to the screen. Pity, but Bennett’s passive-aggressive self-righteousness is self-indulgent, thick and lugubrious.

11. Direction OK 2.5

12. Play Bad 1.0

13. Music Barely OK 2.0

14. Visuals Pretty Bad 1.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.7

17. Sex Titillating 1.6

18. Violence Gentle 1.5

19. Rudeness Salty 1.9

21. Reality

    Glib 1.2

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.7

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0