Release Date: April 14th, 2017
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Rated: PG
“Show Me Your World”
I remember seeing a trailer for Maudie when my parents and I attended the theatre to see Weirdos earlier this year. It has been stuck in my mind ever since, I even tried to win an advanced screening for it, but my intentions were to give the pass to my parents for them to go see. I did not even know that this film was playing in the city, until Dad mentioned that we should go see it, and I’m glad we did.
This review will be short but sweet, because of my rules about writing reviews these days, but hopefully I can capture what is needed.
Maudie is a biography, drama and romance film based on the true story about Maude Lewis, an arthritic Nova Scotia woman is working as a housekeeper while at the same time she hones her skills as a painter and eventually becomes a beloved figure in the community. What follows is a brilliantly told and acted story.
Maudie is directed by Aisling Walsh. Walsh is a director I am absolutely not familiar with. I’ve never heard of her before seeing Maude, which is a shame. Walsh is a really great director from what I can tell from this film. Each shot of the movie is really well framed, honestly like a moving painting, which adds a lot to the film. We have this director whose trying to capture the life and times of this brilliant artist, I feel like it changes the tone of the film more, especially with what this director chooses to put on film. Theres a couple of scenes of this fishing town, pulled way back on a hill, and you see all this beautiful cinematography, but it looks so serene and so calm, like someone is capturing a painting. I enjoyed the subtle vibe of the direction of this film, it wasn’t fancy but it definitely didn’t need to be. I definitely need to do some extending viewing of this director, as I think she is great, judging from this film.
Maudie is written by Sherry White. White isn’t a writer I am familiar with at all. But I thought this film was really well written. I thought it did a great job capturing the overall relationship between Maude and Everett, whether it be the good times or the hard times. There was also some really great quips throughout the movie delivered by Sally Hawkins who plays Maude Lewis. I thought it strikes a great balance between being a dramatic script and a funny script. It wasn’t overly dramatic the whole time, but at the same time it wasn’t a comedy film but had comedic elements. I loved how it was written, I love the characters, I love how it captured this persons life.
The film stars Sally Hawkins as Maude Lewis, Ethan Hawke as Everett Lewis and Kari Matchett as Sandra.
Sally Hawkins filmography consists of Layer Cake (2004), Never Let Me Go (2010), Godzilla (2014), and Paddington (2014). I haven’t seen Blue Jasmine (2013), but after seeing Maudie, I need to see more Sally Hawkins films. I always thought Hawkins was a lovely actor, from the films I really remember her in, she always plays the motherly character, she is always sweet and just wonderful, especially in Paddington (2014). But I think that Maudie is her best acted film. She really captured the person that was Maude Lewis, she was absolutely wonderful in this role. She was funny, you felt for her character, you were sucked in, not only by her performance but the way that I didn’t feel like I was watching an actor act, I thought I was watching the actual person. Much like I did when I watched The Theory Of Everything (2014) and watching Eddie Redmayne be Steven Hawking. If you can make me forget that I’m watching a movie and watching you act, and make me feel like I’m almost watching a documentary…then I think you have really succeeded as an actor, and Sally Hawkins did that with ease. I feel like we have had our first Oscar worthy role for 2017 with Hawkins portrayal of Maude; she was absolutely fantastic.
Ethan Hawke’s filmography consists of Dead Poet’s Society (1989), Gattaca (1997), Training Day (2001), Taking Lives (2004), Lord of War (2005), Brooklyn’s Finest (2009), Daybreakers (2009), Total Recall (2012), and Sinister (2012). I love Ethan Hawke in everything he does, he is definitely one of my favourite actors. He is so consistent, and I honestly haven’t seen a bad Ethan Hawke movie. Theres a couple films that he has done that are in my pile to watch down the line, The Before Trilogy and Boyhood are a couple of standouts. I really enjoyed Hawke in this role, you hated him in parts, you loved him in other parts. He was just really great in this role, and I thought he did a great job capturing the person that was Everett Lewis. From what I heard he was not very kind to Maude, and I felt like this film while being dramatized for the film, like most based on true story films, but I felt like his acting, as always was great.
Kari Matchett’s filmography consists of 24 {TV Series} (2007). I knew when I watched this movie and the character of Sandra was introduced, I recognized her. But it was not until I looked up the IMDB to write this review, that I remembered her character from 24, as I just finished watching that season again. Matchett is probably the weaker character in this movie, but when you have such stand out performances and just a unbelievable performance by Sally Hawkins, Matchett was still very good. She played Maude’s best friend, and I would say a fan, as she would commission Maude to paint her pictures. Matchett played a good supporting role, and friend like character to Maude.
The acting and characters were just absolutely fantastic in this movie, there is definitely a lot to love in this movie and a lot to get lost in. I loved all the characters, but I was absolutely floored by Sally Hawkins performance of Maude Lewis, like I’m still thinking about it, and I still feel like I’m involved in that world.
The soundtrack in this movie was really lovely. I felt like the music fit the film perfectly. There were a lot of walking “montages” in this movie and the music that accompanied them really just fit.
I also loved the ending of this movie, I felt like how it ended was absolutely perfect. We get this shot from inside the house where Maude lived, and slowly the door closes, and goes dark and then slowly the other door closes and goes dark, and then the credits roll. But what really struck me, is that the whole house was painted in real life by Maude, and when the door closed, you couldn’t see the artwork anymore, it just looked like a normal house with sunlight shining in through the windows and the tiny cracks between the wood. I felt like this was intentional, as we as an audience were allowed into this world, much like the quote I started this review with this movie review with, “Show Me Your World.” We were shown Maude Lewis’ world, almost like we were invited in to the tiny house to witness her day-to-day life. Actually it was almost like we were a person in the room or a fly on the wall, witnessing her life. I felt like it was just a great way to end it.
I really enjoyed this movie, I loved the acting, I loved the characters, the cinematography, the scenery. Just pretty much everything.
I give Maudie a 5/5.
Until Next Time!
Andrew
Coming Up:
I will be doing Reviews for
The Void (2016)
Free Fire (2017) – after the Advanced Screening on April 17th
Unforgettable (2017) – after the Advanced Screening on April 19th
I’m also going to try to get the Inspirational Movie Mondays going again, I apologize for slacking on those.