Saint Maud Movie Review

“Saint Maud” is a bleak look at a misguided soul who confuses feeling Pain for receiving Love. The main character is a nurse, who should be be able to embrace life. Yet she is overwhelmed by a wrong-headed religious belief that her destiny is to die for God.

Nurse Maud (played by Morfydd Clark) has a checkered past, due to a patient whom she could not save with CPR. She was working at a London hospital, and she was not able to handle the psychological damage. She was let go and she works in an unnamed town near the coast. She recently has become deeply religious, almost to the point that she says she hears voices speaking to her. Her given name is Katie, but she now refers to herself as Maud.

Maud is given a job to care for a local resident in the town. The woman is named Amanda (played by Jennifer Ehle) who is in late-stage cancer treatments. Maud will be doing in-home care for Amanda. She finds out that Amanda was a celebrated dancer and choreographer who lived in America. She had it all, and now she is confined to a wheelchair and must rely on in-home aid. Amanda is angry and bitter, and Maud feels she must save her soul.

Maud feels that she has been guided by God to come into Amanda’s live and bring her the acceptance of her pain and suffering. After all, these are the ways that you can prove to God that you are worthy – so Maud believes. Amanda seems to agree and says that she also feels the warm embrace of God when Maud prays for her. But Amanda still has some old friends with some impure thoughts and actions come over to the house. One day, at a big party — Amanda announces that Maud has been fooled by her act of believing Maud’s actions would ‘save’ her. Maud slaps Amanda and gets fired.

Now Maud is alone and her faith is shaken. She thinks if she goes out and spends time with people they might start to like her. But her time is only wasted and she feels that she needs to be more contrite to get back the good graces. She needs to suffer and be downtrodden so that she can achieve her salvation. She begins to hear things and see things. She believes that God’s voice is taking to her and that there are special signs in the sky that are giving her a new direction.

There is only one way for her to get the final and ultimate grace. She must make one trip back to Amanda and convince her to convert and believe. Amanda’s pain and suffering will be added to her own and then they will both be in a state a joy. But if Amanda refuses her offer, then perhaps she is led by the Devil – and she must be destroyed. The evil within her must be vanquished.

Maud and Amanda are in a trap of destiny, being pulled together into a frantic place of futile faith. If Amanda can see the light, Maud will be assured of a Heavenly Grace. But if not, there could be Hell to pay…

“Saint Maud” is an odd little film, in that you are never quite sure if Maud is in the realm of Spiritual Awakening or Mental Illness. But you should bet on the later. That makes Maud (as a character) a lonely and desolate soul. Morfydd Clark does a fine job in the role, and she gives Maud a fragile outer shell – while showing that she can be ferocious on the inside. Jennifer Ehle plays a devious villain, telling Maud one thing while playing her as a naive sucker.

The frame is usually filled with darkness (literally) and there is a sense of gloom and dread. Maud thinks that her faith requires an intense measure of pain and suffering. So the visuals, and the soundtrack, veer into places that feel uncomfortable. On occasion there is a shot selection that is a little to ‘Artsy’. Such as: a shot in frame where Maud is shown upside down, to signify her world is ‘upside down’.

Rose Glass (as the Screenwriter and the Director) has made a movie that brings out no hope or any peace. It is a deep slog into a mind that might be overcome by God. But more likely, it is a mind that is overcome with severe mental issues.

“Saint Maud” is movie that wants to say something perhaps important. But it never quite gets the message out, due to all of the religious baggage.