I had to run several errands in Portland so I timed them to zip into the little Nickleodeon Theater to settle in with twenty other folks to view this Canadian based film.
Based on a true story, it centers around the life of Maud, a disabled young adult crippled and bent from arthritis and viewed as a liability by what is left of her family.
Strong willed and independent at heart, despite her disability she ventures out in her small seaside village in Nova Scotia to work as a housemate for an eccentric and illiterate fishmonger. Their life together is depicted over the years in the course of the film in a ramshackle two story postage stamp of a house.
The cinematography is breathtaking throughout, and while filmed in Ireland it could easily have been Nova Scotia.
Sally Hawkins’s performance as Maud is one for the ages. Every frame she occupies is amazing. Her smile, her coy looks, her sharp quietly delivered wit, her everything make me want to run out to see it all again. Hawkins’s career began on the London stage in multiple Shakespeare works and she eventually moved on to the big screen getting rave notices as Samantha in Mike Leigh’s “All or Nothing” in 2002. She worked with Mike Leigh again in 2009’s “Happy-Go-Lucky”. Her portrayal of Poppy won her a Golden Globe for Best Actress, which surprisingly to many did not carry through to an Oscar. I cannot imagine anyone overlooking this performance as Oscar nomination worthy.
Ethan Hawke is solid as the grumpy, uneducated, sometimes violent local fishmonger and handyman. The film clearly belongs to Sally Hawkins, however.
Maud dabbles with paint in her spare time forming flowers, birds and other objects on the walls of the shack making the place feel prettier and more like a home. A chance meeting with a summering New Yorker leads to the discovery of the artwork of this unknown cheerful woman. Soon their home becomes a tourist attraction as curious travelers stop by to view and buy her work.
Maud Lewis lived a very tough but happy life and Ms. Hawkins captures it all beautifully. She died at age 67 in 1970 and is one of Canada’s best known folk artists.
Do yourself a huge favor and find a place showing this film and make your way there.
