The Lady in the Van
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: December 4, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
4
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 4, 2015
The remarkable thing about Smith in The Lady in the Van is that, even though the role is no longer fresh for her, the performance certainly is. She gives it everything she’s got because, you feel, she wants to honor this character. She wants Miss Shepherd to live on. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 24, 2016
It’s a film that flirts with cloying, here and there — especially at the end. But it reminds us, even before that U.N. recognition becomes official, that there’ll always be an England, that English manners survive, and there’ll always be a Maggie Smith, imperious, hilarious and glorious in that wonderful third act her life and career have given her. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJan 28, 2016
Try not to let the film's overbearingly jaunty score get in the way. The Lady in the Van is quite a feat. Read full review
83
The PlaylistKimber MyersJan 14, 2016
This isn’t an overly sentimental story; those expecting the emotional swells of other British fare like “Pride” and “Kinky Boots” should adjust their expectations. The Lady in the Van is a more buttoned-up narrative, but it’s no less engaging thanks to Smith, Jennings, and Bennett’s script. Read full review
83
HitfixGregory EllwoodOct 20, 2015
It’s simply a very well done movie that features Maggie Smith’s best work in years (and, yes, she’s better here than any of her years on “Downton Abbey”). Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesRebecca KeeganDec 3, 2015
A delicately written, boisterously performed movie about the difficult people who dare us to care about them. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 3, 2015
This English film, directed by Nicholas Hytner, is also wonderfully funny, terribly touching and a vehicle — with comically dilapidated vehicles — for the boundless gifts of Maggie Smith. Read full review
80
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlDec 1, 2015
It's an honest and incisive and peppery examination of one of his life's strangest but most enduring relationships — and the way that timidity and kindness often work out to being the same thing. Read full review
80
EmpireIan NathanNov 2, 2015
Unshowy to a fault, Hytner delivers a fine, moving comedy of English manners between a writer and his eccentric tenant, which slowly deepens into an exploration of human bonds. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeSep 19, 2015
A wonderful Maggie Smith plays all this dead straight, poker-faced for maximum laughs. It’s a peppery, unsentimental performance. She’s hysterically funny, till she’s not – flooring you as the regret and tragedy behind Miss Shepherd’s vagabond life is revealed. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 19, 2015
Smith’s performance, honed from the previous stage and radio versions, is terrifically good. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanFeb 25, 2016
If you want a glimpse of a damaged mind and a thorough look at an artist’s healthier psyche, you’ll be satisfied. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Nathalie AtkinsonFeb 14, 2016
Smith is never more beloved than when she plays just this sort of curmudgeon. Happily for the movie, Bennett’s Lady is the cantankerous one the performer was most born to play. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonFeb 4, 2016
Based on a true story, The Lady in the Van is a well-acted but somewhat wearying exercise in British whimsy. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJan 28, 2016
The Lady in the Van ultimately presents a number of facts that would seem to “solve” Mary Shepherd. I’d like to think Smith knows better than that. In her hands, the lady in the van remains complex and unknowable — a mystery to the end. And that, friends, is acting. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJan 21, 2016
The Lady in the Van is about a talented young writer still wrestling with how to draw upon his own experiences without exploiting others — and it’s about the boundless talents of Maggie Smith, sometimes chewing up the screen, sometimes saying volumes simply by sitting very, very still, with a perfectly perfect expression on her face. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 21, 2016
Shepherd, apparently, was a genuine, needle-sharp wit and the way Smith plays her, the character's tart rejoinders are superhumanly perfect. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandJan 21, 2016
While The Lady in the Van is one of those quaint and quirky little films of which the British are inordinately fond, Americans will find it equally endearing, with the exception of the hideously over-the-top final scene. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayJan 21, 2016
There’s no denying the humor and pathos of The Lady in the Van, just as there’s no use fending off the force of nature that is Smith. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie OgleJan 21, 2016
The Lady in the Van doesn’t give in to platitudes. It’s unnervingly honest about its subject. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaDec 10, 2015
For anyone who adores Smith—which is pretty much everyone these days—they will have quite a satisfying ride with this crusty grand dame behind the wheel. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckSep 19, 2015
It's Smith's eccentric oldster who is the film's driving force, and the 80-year-old actress doesn't disappoint. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisFeb 10, 2016
It may not sound like much of a storyline, but there’s a subtle beauty in the ability of human compassion to cure one’s shortcomings. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversJan 7, 2016
Look, it's fun to watch Shepherd hate on bratty children, classical music and liberal pieties. Smith's acid tongue makes any line sound better. But the subplot about a blackmailer (Jim Broadbent) who terrorizes Shepherd in the dead of night adds nothing, least of all a purpose. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithDec 3, 2015
Smith’s appeal, just, holds together a thin plot upon which Bennett, who wrote the script, and director Nicholas Hytner have loaded gimmicks. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen HoldenDec 3, 2015
In Ms. Smith’s tough, levelheaded performance, Mary is an irascible termagant full of batty notions clutching on to life as best she can. She is hard to like, and that’s good. Read full review
60
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 19, 2015
Low on narrative drive, and marred by a misjudged final-act swerve into extravagant whimsy, Nicholas Hytner’s amiable luvvie-fest is enlivened by Smith’s signature irascibility. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerDec 2, 2015
Though director Nicholas Hytner does his best to enliven the material, Bennett very much comes across as a dull man’s Charlie Kaufman, even more so when the movie ends with flat, unearned whimsicality. Good as she is here, Smith must cede this round to Dench. Read full review
45
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeDec 3, 2015
The film has a killer case of the cutes that only Smith’s acidity can cut, and only so much. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineElise NakhnikianDec 1, 2015
The film's annoying glibness is neatly summarized by the line: "In life, going downhill is an uphill job." Read full review
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