Maudie (2015)

This is a quirky movie based on the life of the Canadian outsider artist Maud Lewis (1903-70) tells the tale of a woman betrayed by her family, all but written off by society, who found solace in a can of paint. .  It is not what at first glance sounds like a charming, feel good story.   Maud (played by the spectacular Sally Hawkins in a believable performance), does channel her compulsion to create into a cottage industry, selling her appealingly naive postcards and decorated boards to day-tripping city sophisticates. She was celebrated in the press. President Nixon owned a piece of her work. But central to her life, and to this film  is Maud’s relationship with her family and with her husband, itinerant fish peddler Everett Lewis (an almost nonverbal Ethan Hawke). Maud has disabling arthritis and something else that has left her odd in both appearance and interactive style.  Her family are deeply ashamed of her and she is treated horribly, leaving her little choice but to live with the man who ultimately becomes her husband.  He is an orphan who has attachment issues and is differently but equally impaired.  Together they form an allegiance that just barely works, but is greater than the sum of its parts.  Strangely enjoyable.