The Lady in the Van Magazine"'s Elise Nakhnikian said the film is all about the "fastidious, somewhat timid, and reclusive playwright Alan Bennett", and stated the film's "annoying glibness is neatly summarized" by the line: "In life, going downhill is an uphill job". The Lady in the Van The Lady in the Van is a 2015 British comedy-drama film directed by Nicholas Hytner, and starring Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings, based on the novel of the same name created by Alan Bennett. It was written by Alan Bennett, and it tells the (mostly) true story of his interactions with Mary Shepherd, an elderly woman who
Lady in the Water Nickelodeon's "" television series, which also received overwhelmingly negative reviews. CNN's Tom Charity, among others, has called "Lady in the Water" the worst film of 2006. It was listed by "Variety" as one of the ten "biggest (financial) losers" of 2006. Wesley Morris of "The Boston Globe" wrote that though the film is "built on too much ponderous self-regard…[t]here is a good chunk of "Lady in the Water" that is simply too well made and affectingly acted to dismiss as a mere exercise in arrogance." Conversely, the film was ranked 6th in the influential film magazine "Cahiers du cinéma"s top