Movies From the Hat IV – #5 – Keith’s Pick – The Lady in the Van (2015)

This is my 2464th Review

Thanks to Keith of Keith Loves Movies for this recommendation.

Here are his thoughts on the film.

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“[narrating] It’s like a fairy story, a parable, in which the guilty is gulled into devising a sentence for someone innocent. Only to find it is their own doom they have pronounced. ” – Alan

Number of Times Seen – 1 (29 Aug 2016)

Brief Synopsis – Based on the true story of a homeless women’s stay in a British neighborhood for more than a decade and how the people were affected.

My Take on it – I heard about this movie months ago and was curious to see what it was all about and thankfully Keith chose it in order to give me the opportunity to do so.

Unfortunately tho, I didn’t like it as much as I had hoped.

Maggie Smith does a superb job playing the main character, but besides that, I can’t really say many real positive things about the film.

The story meanders along and I kept hoping things would speed up a bit and become more interesting as things progressed.

I wasn’t a fan of the techniques used to make it feel more phantasmagorical.

The problem is that it is an important story to tell, but they should have made this even shorter in order to keep it more interesting.

Bottom Line – Can’t say I loved this film, but Maggie Smith’s portrayal is superb. The story meanders a bit too much and I didn’t like the way they used numerous writing tricks to try and tell the story.  I think this could have been much better if it had been shortened a bit.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The film was shot in the actual house on the actual street where the events took place, Gloucester Crescent in Camden Town. Some of the same people still lived there when the star prop arrived, decades later.  (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy

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