Maggie Smith, who sadly died in last year, was always a pleasure to watch for many years. Yes, she has been mainly known for her supporting performances in those Harry Potter movies and the acclaimed British TV series “Downton Abbey”, but, as many of you know, she also did many other interesting things for more than 60 years, and Nicholas Hytner’s 2015 film “The Lady in the Van” is one of such cases.

The movie is based on the book of the same name by screenwriter Alan Bennett, which was initially an essay and then developed into a book, a play, and then a radio play step by step. As a matter of fact, Smith already played the titular character in both the 1999 stage play directed by Hytner and then the 2009 radio play, and it goes without saying that she was quite familiar with her character from the very beginning.

The story mainly revolves around the strained but enduring real-life relationship between Bennett himself, played by Alex Jennings, and one interesting old lady. In 1970, Bennett was one of the successful playwrights working in UK, so he could afford to buy a fairly nice house in an affluent neighborhood in London, but then he came to learn about one little problem in this neighborhood. There was an old eccentric homeless lady living inside her little van, and the residents of the neighborhood tolerated her and helped her a bit because she had not caused much trouble except being as stinky as you can expect from your average homeless person. 

When this old lady, who is known as “Miss Mary Shepherd”, happens to move her van to a spot right across the street from his house, Bennett cannot help but become curious about her. As a seasoned writer, he senses something interesting to write about, but he is also cautious of the possibility of disagreeable problems to come, and we are often tickled as watching Bennett discussing with himself on how to deal with Miss Shepherd.

And then things become rather annoying for Bennett later. Miss Shepherd moves to his side of the street not long after buying a new van for her thanks to a generous wealthy neighbor, and then, what do you know, she eventually moves her van to the driveway of his house when she is not allowed to park her van outside. It seems at first that she is going to stay there just for several months, but she does not move at all even after several years, and she frequently annoys Bennett for one reason or another. 

Nevertheless, Bennett remains both curious and caring about Miss Shepherd. Sure, she is often quite difficult to deal with, and it also looks like she has some mental problem, but she is too eccentric to ignore for Bennett, who continues to consider writing about her someday. It is evident that she was once a well-educated woman, but she does not tell that much about her past, and that certainly makes Bennett all the more curious about her.

Meanwhile, we get to know more about Bennett himself. When he spends some time with his aging mother who does not seem that well in her mind, we can clearly see how he can be so sympathetic to Miss Shepherd despite many annoyances caused by her. In case of a number of different guys visiting and then leaving his house, this is surely noticed by Miss Shepherd, but he is not so willing to correct her rather funny misunderstanding. 

As cheerfully bouncing from one episodic moment to another, the movie simply lets Smith shine along the story, and she deftly plays her character with a sly sense of humor. While her character remains rather distant to both us and Bennett even during the last act where he gets to know a bit more about her past, Smith imbues her role with a lot of life and personality to observe, and we can sense and understand more of why Bennett usually cannot say no to Miss Shepherd, who feels like a little force of nature as we observes more of her along the story.   

On the opposite, Jennings, a veteran actor who has appeared in a number of acclaimed films including Stephen Frears’ “The Queen” (2006), is also engaging a dryly sensible counterpart to Smith’s character. Bennett’s screenplay is willing to present a lot of himself on the screen with some extra humor, and Jennings ably handles several witty scenes where the two versions of his character argue or discuss with each other. In case of several notable cast members, Roger Allam and Frances de la Tour provide extra humor as Jennings’ colorful neighbors, and Jim Broadbent and Claire Foy are solid in their small supporting parts. In addition, Bennett and Hytner had several male main cast members of their 2006 film “The History Boys” briefly appear here and there throughout the movie, and you may recognize some of them, considering that they become more prominent than before. 

In conclusion, “The Lady in the Van” is a modest but enjoyable comedy movie mainly thanks to Smith’s wonderful performance. Although she is no longer with us at present, she left a considerable amount of achievement to be cherished and remembered at least, and her work here in this film is surely one of the more memorable ones in her long and illustrious career. Yes, she was usually someone to play your typical old British lady during last several decades, but she seldom disappointed us with her own distinctive presence and talent, and the movie will make you miss her more than before.