By MJ Moye
Nova Scotia in Film
a periodic examination of films with Nova Scotia connections
Maudie
Landscape Entertainment, 2016
Director: Aisling Walsh
Starring: Sally Hawkins, Ethan Hawke and Kari Matchett.
Nova Scotia Connections: Completely set (though not filmed) in Nova Scotia.
Nova Scotia Actors: Billy MacLellan.
If ever a movie should have been filmed in Nova Scotia, Maudie is it. But alas, due in part to the Stephen MacNeil government’s reduction of the provinces’s film tax credit, the producers filmed the movie in Newfoundland.
Premiering in the major 2016 Canadian film festivals, from which it won several major awards, Maudie was released across Canada in April, and is scheduled for U.S. release in June. The movie and its two leading actors are receiving some Oscar buzz by reviewers, and the film currently has a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer rating of 93 per cent. If local interest can be counted as an accurate review gauge, the Tuesday evening packed house at the Bridgewater Cineplex would also suggest the movie is a critical and perhaps—dare I say it?—financial success.
Maudie is the biopic of Nova Scotia’s iconic folk artist Maud Lewis, who is also claimed as one of Canada’s most renowned folk artists. While the movie featured the evolution of her painting success, the film primarily focuses on the simple yet complicated relationship between Maud and her fishmonger husband, Everett.
In short, the film is a love story, though few love stories have ever successfully started out with a strong backhand to the face so early in the relationship. Few relationships could also survive the curmudgeonry—if not downright mean-spirited—nature of Everett, but the movie makes it clear that she truly loved him and that he truly loved her. Dirt poor and living in a decrepit one-room house, Maude suggests near the film’s end that his love for her was the most important thing in her life.
Of course, the movie makes clear that Maud’s artistry ranked pretty high in the grand scheme of life satisfaction as well. The primary details of her artistic career—selling cards for nickels and dimes, artistically painting her own house, selling larger paintings to passing motorists, being featured on television, and receiving an order from U.S. President Richard Nixon—are reflected in the film. But overall, Maud’s art in the film seems more a prop to help advance the love story than it is ‘the’ story.
The progression of Maud’s rheumatoid arthritis is also portrayed in the film, with scenes depicting the advancement in her disfigurement and difficulties she had painting as she grew older. However, the film never lingers on the issue, giving the viewer the likely correct impression that Maude fully accepted her condition as just being part of who she was.
I’ve got to agree with other reviewers that the acting was stellar. I cannot say that Sally Hawkins perfectly captured Maud Lewis and her personality, but she certainly portrayed the role with brilliance and believability. Likewise, Ethan Hawke captured the spirit of a poor, down-on-his luck fishmonger—a man of few words, a temper, and admitted dislike for people in general. Few people alive can tell us whether Hawke’s character is a perfect match with the real Everett, but the audience will certainly find him believable as such.
Together, the pair weave cinematographic magic as an odd, unlikely couple that slowly fall in love. And, the movie suggests that Maud may have determined that Everett was ‘the one’ upon first sight, and pursued the relationship accordingly. The love that evolves between the two comes subtly in fits and starts, but proves to be exceptionally powerful thanks to the magnificent acting and onscreen chemistry between the pair. In fact, despite the odd nature of this love story, the love between Maud and Everett as played by the actors, comes across as being deeper than that of many of Hollywood’s most famous love stories.
Other actors, such as Kari Matchett, who plays a New York City summer visitor and encourages Maud in her art, play their roles admirably, but one’s attention is always fixated on Maud and Everette.
The one Nova Scotia actor, Billy MacLellan, who plays Frank, Everett’s sometime boss, adds a little needed levity during two scenes, with his cheeky sense of humour, and serves as a good foil against Everett’s curmudgeonry.
Finally, the Newfoundland filming locations served admirably as settings for Digby and the surrounding area. Nevertheless, the film should have been shot in Nova Scotia.
