Synopsis
The true story of the relationship between Alan Bennett and the singular Miss Shepherd, a woman of uncertain origins who ‘temporarily’ parked her van in Bennett’s London driveway and proceeded to live there for 15 years.
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Cast
- Maggie SmithMiss Shepherd
- Alex JenningsAlan Bennett
- Frances de la TourUrsula Vaughan Williams
- Gwen TaylorMam
- Dominic CooperTheatre Actor
- James CordenStreet Trader
- Roger AllamRufus
- Samuel AndersonJehovah's Witness
- Dermot CrowleyPriest
- Jim BroadbentUnderwood
Recommendations
- 83
Hitfix
It’s simply a very well done movie that features Maggie Smith’s best work in years (and, yes, she’s better here than any of her years on “Downton Abbey”). - 80
The Guardian
Smith’s performance, honed from the previous stage and radio versions, is terrifically good. - 80
Time Out London
A wonderful Maggie Smith plays all this dead straight, poker-faced for maximum laughs. It’s a peppery, unsentimental performance. She’s hysterically funny, till she’s not – flooring you as the regret and tragedy behind Miss Shepherd’s vagabond life is revealed. - 80
Empire
Unshowy to a fault, Hytner delivers a fine, moving comedy of English manners between a writer and his eccentric tenant, which slowly deepens into an exploration of human bonds. - 80
Village Voice
It's an honest and incisive and peppery examination of one of his life's strangest but most enduring relationships — and the way that timidity and kindness often work out to being the same thing. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
It's Smith's eccentric oldster who is the film's driving force, and the 80-year-old actress doesn't disappoint. - 63
New York Post
Smith’s appeal, just, holds together a thin plot upon which Bennett, who wrote the script, and director Nicholas Hytner have loaded gimmicks. - 60
Variety
Low on narrative drive, and marred by a misjudged final-act swerve into extravagant whimsy, Nicholas Hytner’s amiable luvvie-fest is enlivened by Smith’s signature irascibility.
