Sally Hawkins shines in ‘Maudie’

Filmed in a rural Newfoundland region where time seems to have stood still, “Maudie” tells the true story of two loners facing a harsh world together, like a pair of trees on a frozen, bare landscape.

Maud Dawley (played by Sally Hawkins), born in 1903 Nova Scotia, suffered as a child from what would now be diagnosed as juvenile arthritis. As an adult, her condition worsened and she walked with a painful limp; nonetheless, she loved to paint colorful pictures of flowers, trees and animals. In her 30s, she met Everett Lewis (Ethan Hawke), a taciturn bachelor living in a tiny farmhouse far from the nearest town, after he placed an ad for a housekeeper. They married and made a quiet life together, with Maud eventually becoming an internationally acclaimed folk artist. (That house, its walls and windows playfully layered with Maud’s bright work, now stands as a permanent exhibit in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.)

As told in Aisling Walsh’s engaging film, this isn’t exactly a love story; Everett, for some time, is abusive and withdrawn, and it’s often not clear whether Maud feels any attachment to him or if she’s just there because of a lack of other options. But what shines through is the beauty of Guy Godfree’s cinematography — the light has a lovely, soft stillness to it, like a painting — and a remarkable performance by Hawkins, whose impossibly wide smile seems to bring the sun.