Maudie (2016)

MAUDIE  (2016)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Aisling Walsh
    Sally Hawkins, Ethan Hawke, Kari Matchett,
    Zachary Bennett, Gabrielle Rose, Billy MacLellan 
Sally Hawkins plays Maud Lewis, a Canadian folk artist whose colorful paintings of flowers, cats and pastoral scenes brought her wide recognition, if not great prosperity, despite severe physical limitations (she had crippling arthritis) and a location (rural Nova Scotia) that couldn't be much more remote. Ethan Hawke plays Maud's husband Everett, a grumpy fish peddler who hires her at first to be a live-in housekeeper. He's antisocial and sometimes abusive, and their relationship is contentious, but there's love in it, too, and Hawkins and Hawke quietly capture that. In one of their more intimate moments, they compare themselves to a pair of mismatched socks, and the metaphor fits. They even exchange ideas about what kinds of socks they would be. Hawkins' physical transformation recalls Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking, and the movie's reminiscent of "Séraphine", a 2008 French film about another suffering folk artist. (If "Maudie" has more emotional resonance, it's because of Hawkins' performance.) Maud Lewis died at 67 in 1970. Everett was killed by a burgler nine years later in the tiny house he and Maud had shared. Many of Maud's paintings, along with the house itself, are on display at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax.