Highly Overrated But Still Good

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

I cried, tears streaming down my face. Maud, what a gentle, beautiful woman, full of joy and humor, and they sold her baby!! The baby would have filled her life, anchored it. What a great mother she could have been. And then there's her ability to make do, to love Everett, a caveman, to bring him out of his hole into the sunlight. Damn. No sticky sentimentality. Just life as it is, a royal pain in the ass.

I'm sometimes asked why I look at various movies without having heard of them before - Maudie is the personification of the very reason. Every so often you find something that leaves you almost speechless, something that changes a part of the way you think and see the world. Maud's story is entirely watchable - even though at times, it's not an easy watch - some people have such difficult lives but they simply keep on going against the odds. This one features powerful performances, beautiful location cinematography (Guy Godfree) & a warm, evocative music score, all showcased within a sensitive script by Sherry White & crowned by the effective directorial touches of Aisling Walsh. The Newfoundland setting (standing in for Nova Scotia for several production reasons) is alternately serene and inhospitable - with both elements adding to the challenged existence of Maudie (superbly played by Sally Hawkins) as she battles her afflictions and the socially inept personality of her unlikely partner/husband Everett Lewis (well portrayed by Ethan Hawk). Maudie is a must watch film for lovers of rich character studies about real-life battlers. Action blockbuster fans may find themselves being challenged but, If you don't shed the odd tear for Maud then you may have lost a vital part of your humanity. It's also very moving to see a clip from an old B/W short showing the real life Maud and Everett featured amongst the end credits. Try not to miss this Irish/Canadian production

Maud shows you how easy people judged by the looks and how simple things can make you happy.

Maudie is a beautifully made biographical drama about the Nova Scotia folk artist Maud Lewis who lived a life of poverty with her husband Everett in their tiny roadside house where she sold her paintings to tourists up until her death in 1970. As the title character, Hawkins gives a brilliantly understated performance of a woman whose painful physical limitations are only surpassed by her ability to see the inherent beauty in life and her surroundings. A hidden gem, Maudie is one of the best films of 2016 that is now likely to receive the attention it deserves, after Hawkins' heightened notoriety from her work with Guillermo del Toro in The Shape of Water.