THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE (1987)

Now known to a generation or two largely as mistress of the pithy putdown, there’s more to Maggie Smith than is dreamt of in DOWNTON ABBEY’s philosophy.  With unlimited range & expertise across multiple acting disciplines, live on stage from Shakespeare & Molnar to Shaffer & Stoppard, and on film, particularly in smaller projects like this quietly moving character study of a middle-aged spinster falling into genteel poverty (and less genteel alcoholism) at an unwelcoming rooming house of lower-middle-class misérables in ‘50s Dublin.  Judith Hearne had once known better, orphaned and living with well-to-do Aunt Wendy Hiller (in her last feature film), she’s now a target for Gentleman Caller Bob Hoskins, freeloading off his sister at the same rooming house, convinced without cause he can boost a business idea with Hearne’s (nonexistent) savings.  The other characters (at the house; at her relatives; at church) very broadly drawn, needing to make their mark in a scene or two.  But this lack of stylistic unity does help to keep a certain obviousness at bay.  (Keeps things lively, too.  Some of the house ‘guests’ awful beyond expectation.)  But you’re obviously here for Dame Maggie.  So too director Jack Clayton, on his last feature, happy to let Smith take focus whenever possible.  At its best, devastating stuff.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Cinematographer Peter Hannan ought to be better known; this film sandwiched between cult fave WITHNAIL & I/’87 and medium successful A HANDFUL OF DUST/’88. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2017/07/a-handful-of-dust-1988.html