The Lady in the Van on 132 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The site's consensus states, "Led by a marvelous performance from Maggie Smith, "Lady in the Van" wrings poignant, often hilarious insight from its fact-based source material." On Metacritic the film holds a score of 70 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Guy Lodge, of "Variety" magazine, attended the worldwide premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. After the screening, he described Smith's portrayal of Mary Shepherd as "one of the most tailor-made leading roles of her late career". Even though, he says, the film is "low
The Lady in the Van whom were there when the van drove down the crescent. Filming was a difficult experience for Smith because she spent most of her time confined to one van or another. According to Smith, the van wasn't the most comfortable of places, and the film was much more concentrated than the play; the stage version was more physically demanding, but Smith admitted it was a long time ago and she could handle it back then. She joked that not a lot of method [acting] was required when one were dressed as [she] was, and in a van. The production crew filmed