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
Lady in the Water ten films of 2006, above films such as Terrence Malick's "The New World". The film was released simultaneously on DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray by Warner Home Video on December 19, 2006. Lady in The Water is the only M. Night Shyamalan film that was ever released on HD DVD. Shyamalan, who credits the development of the movie to a bedtime story he told his children about what happens in their pool at night, wrote the 72-page children's book "Lady in the Water: A Bedtime Story" (Little, Brown, New York, ) to coincide with the movie. The book's illustrations were