Product: The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne [VHS] (1988)
Rating: 5.0
Heartbreaking Maggie Smith
Maggie Smith hasn't played the lead for such a long time that part of the joy of this 1987 British film directed by Jack Clayton is seeing her again. Based on the wonderful novel by Irish Brian Moore published in 1955, this project was optioned at various times by Geraldine Page, Katharine Hepburn, Rachel Roberts and Deborah Kerr but circumstances failed them. Perhaps we were lucky to have waited for Smith since she is heartbreakingly good as the aging spinster who has her last chance at romance when she moves into a Dublin boardinghouse. Smith's large sorrowful dark blue eyes express the waste of her life and her yearning for happiness yet she is never pathetic, even when we see her lying about her relationship with American Bob Hoskins. Their romance is a based on a misunderstanding that you wait to unravel. I particularly like the scene after Smith has learnt the truth when she gets progressively drunker and funnier as she talks to a family who barely tolerate her visits. Hoskins acts with his eyebrows, like a hyper-Groucho, though strangely his weakness adds a dimension to the ending. Worth noting are Marie Kean as the landlady, whose smiles conceal malice; Ian McNeice as her son, a piggy Dylan Thomas; and the lovely music of Georges Delerue.