MAUDIE

OUT 4 AUGUST / CERT 12A / 116 MINS DIRECTOR Aisling Walsh CAST Sally Hawkins, Ethan Hawke

FIRST-TIME FEATURE director Aisling Walsh reunites with her Fingersmith star Sally Hawkins in this tender true tale of the romance of eccentric Canadian artist Maud Dowley and emotionally stifled fishmonger Everett Lewis (Hawke). Shot in Newfoundland and Labrador, the beautiful locations give striking context for a story that is suffused in sadness. Maud — arthritic, abandoned and nursing the pain of losing her daughter — becomes Everett’s housekeeper after answering an ad, and after a challenging start a quiet, undemonstrative kind of love develops. Like the central pair’s romance, it’s a slow-burn, unshowy film, with nuanced performances from Hawkins and Hawke, who make this unconventional but delicately moving relationship ring perfectly true.