Maudie **** (2016, Sally Hawkins, Ethan Hawke, Kari Matchett) – Movie Review

Sally Hawkins is on Oscar form as down-trodden, ultra-arthritic Nova Scotia woman Maudie, who leaves her oppressively bossy Aunt Ida (Gabrielle Rose) and begs to work as a housekeeper for the desperately dour and lonely fisherman Everett Lewis (Ethan Hawke). He wants a woman and advertises for one – just not her. He wants her gone but somehow manages to tolerate her and she moves in on him.

Their difficult, abusive relationship turns into an enduring marriage at Maudie’s persistence, while, between skivvying for him as a near-slave, she hones her skills as a folk artist, managing to sell her paintings for a few coins. An American woman, Sandra (Kari Matchett), living there, commissions her and befriends her.

Lovingly written by Sherry White and directed by Aisling Walsh, this is an extremely moving bitter-sweet film. It is Hawkins’s film, in a tour de force, but Hawke is tremendously good too. On a lucky day, he could pick up a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Hawke has no struggle to inhabit a troubled and troublesome character.

In the most peculiar way, it turns out the couple do love each other, do see each other’s inner beauty and true soul, and become soul mates. But it is almost a sado-masochist relationship that they are in. With all the story’s dark and awkward corners, the film is bleak and slightly depressing, but Maudie has the life force, and that it what we are triumphantly celebrating here.

[Spoiler alert] Just two niggles. When Lewis hits Maudie, you suddenly lose all interest in and grudging sympathy for, his character. This is a problem for the film that it can’t solve. It puts you off the film, and a bit off Maudie too. The other is that Maudie gets really sick and dies way too suddenly. It is like there are a couple of scenes missing.

The film-makers probably want to spare us the misery of this, after enduring so much previous misery in the film, but the dramatic arc is wrong here. It is like with Lady Macbeth. She goes mad suddenly when she was perfectly well at lunch. In Macbeth, we can assume that a couple of Shakespeare’s scenes are missing. Was there more of Maudie in the script originally that they didn’t film?

However, this is a must-see for Hawkins, Hawke and the story of the never-going-to-give-up Maudie. Life hands her a box of lemons so she eats lemons. We are supposed to learn something from Maudie as well as admire her and take heart from her story. And we do.

Aisling Walsh previously made Song for a Raggy Boy (2003).

Maud Lewis (1903-1970).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review

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