Maudie (2016)

Maudie is a 2016 biographical drama film directed by Aisling Walsh and starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke. A co-production of Ireland and Canada, the film is about the life of folk artist Maud Lewis, who painted in Nova Scotia. In the story, Maud (Hawkins) struggles with arthritis, memory of a lost child, and a family that doubts her ability, before moving in with a surly fish peddler (Hawke) as a housekeeper. Despite their differing personalities, they marry as her art gains in popularity. The film was shot in Newfoundland and Labrador, requiring a re-creation of Lewis's famously small house.

Its premiere was at the Telluride Film Festival in 2016. It was selected to be screened in the Special Presentations section at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and won a number of awards at other festivals. After festival screenings and wider releases, Maudie received positive reviews. It also won critics societies' awards for Hawkins' performance, seven Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture, and three Irish Film & Television Awards, including Best Director and Best International Actor for Ethan Hawke.

The fact that the film was shot in Newfoundland was the subject of controversy in Lewis' native Nova Scotia. Nevertheless, the popularity of the film sparked a resurgence of interest in Lewis' art.

In Marshalltown, Nova Scotia, Maud Dowley is a woman living with her Aunt Ida and brother Charles in the 1930s. She has severe arthritis and is shocked to learn that Charles has sold their family home, which their parents had left to him. In the meantime, she is berated by Ida about visiting the local nightclub. Maud had once been impregnated and gave birth, but Charles and Ida told her that the child was deformed and died.

At a store, Maud sees the inarticulate and rough fish peddler Everett Lewis place an advertisement for a cleaning lady. Maud answers the call and takes the position in exchange for room and board. Everett's house is very small, and the two are known to share a bed. This causes scandal in the town, with gossip that Maud is offering sexual services. While attempting to clean the shack, Maud paints a shelf. She begins painting flowers and birds on the walls, for aesthetic improvement. She meets one of Everett's customers, Sandra from New York City, who is intrigued by Maud's paintings and buys cards which Maud has decorated. She later commissions Maud to make a larger painting for five dollars.

Maud persuades Everett to marry her. Her paintings receive more exposure and newspaper coverage and she begins to sell them from their house. U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon contacts the Lewises to buy one. After the couple is featured on TV news, Everett becomes disturbed that local viewers see him as cold and cruel. Ida, increasingly ill, also saw the coverage, and Maud wants to see her before her aunt dies.

Ida tells Maud that she is the only Dowley who ever found happiness, and confesses Maud's baby girl did not die. Believing Maud could never care for a child, Charles had adopted the baby out to a family for a price. Maud is devastated, and Everett becomes convinced their relationship has brought him nothing but emotional anguish. The two separate.

After Everett and Maud reconcile, Everett takes her to the home of the adoptive family, where from a distance Maud sees her grown daughter for the first time. However, Maud's physical state is deteriorating, and she dies at the hospital, telling Everett she was loved.