Movie: Maudie
Starring: Sally Hawkins, Ethan Hawke
Writer: Sherry White
Director: Aisling Walsh
Rated: PG-13
On September 20, I returned to Cinema Arts Theatre to see Maudie. Unbeknownst to me, Wednesdays are senior discount days at the theater, so even the early morning showing was fairly well attended by retirees. At the counter, I asked for one ticket and, to my bemusement, the young woman asked me if that would be a senior ticket. "Not yet," I said, wondering if she'd just said that because of the poor lighting in the lobby and the fact that I was surrounded by elderly movie-goers, or if I really did look a good 15 years older than my actual age.
Anyway.
Maudie is based on the life of Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis, and while it is not my usual choice of cinematic fare, I was intrigued by the idea that art could be such a driving force in someone's life that even the most difficult circumstances couldn't suppress her will to create.
Maud Lewis was born in 1903 in Nova Scotia and suffered from rheumatoid arthritis from an early age. The movie opens on Maud (Sally Hawkins) as a young woman staying with her rigid and humorless Aunt Ida, where she learns that her brother has sold the family home without her knowledge. Maud's family believes she is incapable of caring for herself. She sets out to prove them wrong by answering an ad posted by a reclusive and seriously antisocial fish peddler named Everett (Ethan Hawke).
This isn't a sweetly sentimental love story, but a depiction of resilience in the face of adversity. Everett is not kind or gentle, and his house is a tiny shack. I should note that I normally have an irrational dislike of Ethan Hawke dating back to the 1994 movie Reality Bites in which he played insufferable jerk Troy Dyer. Even with this bias, I have to admit Hawke does an extraordinary job humanizing a very unsympathetic character. Hawke brings to life the pain and loneliness of a man without even the most basic social skills, but it is still hard to watch the way he treats Maud.
Yet it is Maud's irrepressible optimism and her delight in painting that ultimately set the tone for their lives together. She livens up their tiny house with her bright and cheerful paintings of birds and flowers, catching the attention of one of Everett's customers and leading to Maud's eventual commercial success as an artist. Hawkins masterfully conveys Maud's gradually deteriorating physical condition, while showing how her inner strength never fails her. That is the most remarkable takeaway from this sometimes painful movie: all Maud Lewis needed to be happy was a little paint and the time to create her art.
For more on Maud's story, check out this article on NPR.
Starring: Sally Hawkins, Ethan Hawke
Writer: Sherry White
Director: Aisling Walsh
Rated: PG-13
On September 20, I returned to Cinema Arts Theatre to see Maudie. Unbeknownst to me, Wednesdays are senior discount days at the theater, so even the early morning showing was fairly well attended by retirees. At the counter, I asked for one ticket and, to my bemusement, the young woman asked me if that would be a senior ticket. "Not yet," I said, wondering if she'd just said that because of the poor lighting in the lobby and the fact that I was surrounded by elderly movie-goers, or if I really did look a good 15 years older than my actual age.
Anyway.
Maudie is based on the life of Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis, and while it is not my usual choice of cinematic fare, I was intrigued by the idea that art could be such a driving force in someone's life that even the most difficult circumstances couldn't suppress her will to create.
Maud Lewis was born in 1903 in Nova Scotia and suffered from rheumatoid arthritis from an early age. The movie opens on Maud (Sally Hawkins) as a young woman staying with her rigid and humorless Aunt Ida, where she learns that her brother has sold the family home without her knowledge. Maud's family believes she is incapable of caring for herself. She sets out to prove them wrong by answering an ad posted by a reclusive and seriously antisocial fish peddler named Everett (Ethan Hawke).
This isn't a sweetly sentimental love story, but a depiction of resilience in the face of adversity. Everett is not kind or gentle, and his house is a tiny shack. I should note that I normally have an irrational dislike of Ethan Hawke dating back to the 1994 movie Reality Bites in which he played insufferable jerk Troy Dyer. Even with this bias, I have to admit Hawke does an extraordinary job humanizing a very unsympathetic character. Hawke brings to life the pain and loneliness of a man without even the most basic social skills, but it is still hard to watch the way he treats Maud.
Yet it is Maud's irrepressible optimism and her delight in painting that ultimately set the tone for their lives together. She livens up their tiny house with her bright and cheerful paintings of birds and flowers, catching the attention of one of Everett's customers and leading to Maud's eventual commercial success as an artist. Hawkins masterfully conveys Maud's gradually deteriorating physical condition, while showing how her inner strength never fails her. That is the most remarkable takeaway from this sometimes painful movie: all Maud Lewis needed to be happy was a little paint and the time to create her art.
For more on Maud's story, check out this article on NPR.
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