Post by pim on Mar 15, 2016 9:10:30 GMT 10
I saw this movie yesterday. If you like Maggie Smith - and who doesn’t - you'll enjoy this movie. In Downton Abbey Maggie Smith plays the role of the Dowager Countess and as such has the best lines in the series which she delivers with withering precision. She is utterly suited to the role. She sounds convincing and looks convincing. I mention this because just as in Downton Abbey Maggie Smith looks and sounds like the real thing ...
... in The Lady in the Van she absolutely looks like the very opposite - shabby and derelict, a wreck of a human being ... and just as convincing as in Downton Abbey:
One tiny spoiler: whether she plays the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey or the homeless woman in The Lady in the Van, Maggie Smith sounds the same, speaking with an accent of cut glass. You'd have thought that a homeless woman speaking with an accent more appropriate to the Dowager Countess would sound totally out of place and unconvincing and yet Maggie Smith carries it off with superb aplomb. It's part of her genius as an actress to make her character, a shabby wreck of a human being who lives in filth and squalor, get people to do things for her simply by commanding them, and at the same time making it appear as if she is doing them a favour by allowing them to help her.
I began the thread with "If you like Maggie Smith ...". This may be one of her last movies. I hope not but she is after all 81 years old. But if you do like this grand old lady you should see this movie. As "Miss Shepherd" she deliberately takes on a role that is the diametric opposite of the Dowager Countess, but still sounding like a Dowager Countess, and utterly convincing. How many more chances will we get to see a new Maggie Smith movie? See it!
... in The Lady in the Van she absolutely looks like the very opposite - shabby and derelict, a wreck of a human being ... and just as convincing as in Downton Abbey:
One tiny spoiler: whether she plays the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey or the homeless woman in The Lady in the Van, Maggie Smith sounds the same, speaking with an accent of cut glass. You'd have thought that a homeless woman speaking with an accent more appropriate to the Dowager Countess would sound totally out of place and unconvincing and yet Maggie Smith carries it off with superb aplomb. It's part of her genius as an actress to make her character, a shabby wreck of a human being who lives in filth and squalor, get people to do things for her simply by commanding them, and at the same time making it appear as if she is doing them a favour by allowing them to help her.
I began the thread with "If you like Maggie Smith ...". This may be one of her last movies. I hope not but she is after all 81 years old. But if you do like this grand old lady you should see this movie. As "Miss Shepherd" she deliberately takes on a role that is the diametric opposite of the Dowager Countess, but still sounding like a Dowager Countess, and utterly convincing. How many more chances will we get to see a new Maggie Smith movie? See it!