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The Lady in the Van

The Lady in the Van

Comedy · Drama · 2015

The true story of the relationship between Alan Bennett and the singular Miss Shepherd, a woman of uncertain origins who ‘temporarily’ parked her van in Bennett’s London driveway and proceeded to live there for 15 years.

Movie details

The Lady in the Van

“A mostly true story”

2015 Comedy · Drama 1h 44m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.7 / 10

35.1K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

89 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

70 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.4 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

The true story of the relationship between Alan Bennett and the singular Miss Shepherd, a woman of uncertain origins who ‘temporarily’ parked her van in Bennett’s London driveway and proceeded to live there for 15 years.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Lady in the Van?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Nicholas Hytner

Written by

Alan Bennett

Maggie Smith

Maggie Smith

Miss Shepherd

Alex Jennings

Alex Jennings

Alan Bennett

Frances de la Tour

Frances de la Tour

Ursula Vaughan Williams

Gwen Taylor

Gwen Taylor

Mam

Dominic Cooper

Dominic Cooper

Theatre Actor

James Corden

James Corden

Street Trader

Roger Allam

Roger Allam

Rufus

Court is in session

Put The Lady in the Van on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.