“Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”
– Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country
I’ve seen the 2016 biographical drama Maudie twice now on cable, and both times it moved me. It’s a quaint yet touching film based on the life of Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis (pictured inset). In keeping with the above quote – For Maud, painting wasn’t a matter of pride or ambition – it was something she simply did, to make herself happy. If others found joy in it too, that was just a lovely bonus. The story tells of humble people living in hard times, finding love and meaning in the smallest corners of life. But it never feels forced or sentimental.
When I first saw Sally Hawkins cast in the lead, I had my doubts. She’d often been typecast as the fragile, soft-spoken woman – roles that risk drifting into caricature. Yet I loved her in Woody Allen’s magnificent Blue Jasmine, where she portrayed a downtrodden, yes, but far bolder female persona. Her Maudie here is fragile, but also funny, resilient, and quietly defiant. Ethan Hawke, meanwhile, gives a subdued and gruff performance as Everett Lewis — Maudie’s rough-edged husband. It’s an unusually restrained turn for Hawke, who I have enjoyed watching since his break-out role in Dead Poets Society.
The story opens with Maudie struggling to earn respect from her family and community. Crippled by arthritis and loneliness, she answers an advert for a live-in housekeeper and moves in with Everett, a taciturn fishmonger who seems to have forgotten how to smile. What begins as a tense arrangement slowly becomes a partnership — awkward, tender, and oddly moving. Living in Everett’s ramshackle shack, Maudie begins to paint again, first on discarded wood and then on the walls themselves, transforming their drab home into a burst of colour and life.
In real life, Maud Lewis would go on to become one of Canada’s most beloved folk artists – though you’d hardly know it from her humble circumstances. The film captures that paradox beautifully: how someone so physically frail and isolated could fill the world around her with such brightness. Hawkins and Hawke make a curious pair, but their relationship feels utterly real – a strange, weather-beaten love that survives because neither has anywhere else to go, and because, somehow, they find beauty in each other’s roughness.
What makes Maudie stay with you isn’t only its story, but its gentle, immersive sense of place. With Guy Godfree’s beautifully restrained cinematography, the film glows with the warmth of a humble home and the splendor of the Nova Scotian landscape. The wide, open vistas feel both vast and tender – like glimpses into Maud’s own quiet, resilient world.
References:
1. Maudie (Film) – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
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