Review of The Lady in the Van (2015) by Frank F — 19 Mar 2016

Considering how much time I spend nowadays talking about movies, listening to podcasts about movies, and watching movies, it's pretty rare for someone to suggest a movie in the theater that I have never heard of before.

That's what happened when my wife asked me to go see The Lady in the Van, and when she described the premise I was even less interested. But she wanted to go, and I went with her hoping that the amazing talent of Maggie Smith could make this a pleasant surprise.

Now I will say there was one element of this movie that I liked. I enjoyed the concept of the main character talking to himself, basically becoming 2 people, the one who lived life and the one who wrote about it.

That's about where my enjoyment stopped. One thing I will say is that there must be a cultural divide that I was struggling with because the overly friendly and giving nature of these British people drove me insane.

I am all for being kind to your fellow man, but going out of your way to accommodate every need of an ungrateful parasite was so hard for me to swallow. I believe that could be an accurate portrayal of how the English might handle this situation, but as a rude American I can't stand to watch it.

I appreciated that they put a lot of effort into telling about the past of the Lady in the Van, and they did their best to vilify certain people who made her life difficult. But, despite their attempts to make me like her, I still found her to be a frustratingly mean and unfriendly character.

I just couldn't sympathize with her, and therefore she was a nuisance. But even being annoyed by every single character could have been tolerable if the film was funny, or interesting, or exciting.

But it was straight up BORING! I hate making that statement about any movie, because I feel like a friend of mine who isn't happy with a movie if there isn't an explosion or fight scene every 15 minutes.

But there is so little that happens in this film, and it's dreadfully long. I almost nodded off to sleep twice, in fact someone in the theater actually did and I envied him. I cannot recommend The Lady in the Van to anyone, unless you want a 2-hour character study of a rude ex-nun who takes advantage of a young writer who can't say no.