The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987) User Reviews

Deeply moving

[KMR · 7/10 · 30 November 1999]

An unsparing portrait of a lonely spinster with nothing to go on but her own ever-weakening faith. All the performances are wonderful, but Maggie Smith in the title role is revelatory. One of the best performances by an actress that I've ever seen.

My brief review of the film

[sol- · 6/10 · 11 December 2005]

Playing an atypically quiet character for the most part, Maggie Smith is excellent in this film, and she deservedly won the BAFTA award for Best Actress for her role. As for the film itself, it is also powered by some fine acting from Marie Kean, and the motivations are interesting for each and every character - the film is a study of why different persons do what they do and what they expect in return. Sadly the snail's pacing is a bit slow for the material to have vigor, and some techniques used do not come off well, such as the melding of flashbacks and double narration with two characters each saying their thoughts. The gloom and anger in the film tend to verge on the excessive, but yet these sad emotions bring extra power to the story, and there really is not much of a story - in terms of events - to work with, but the film manages to do a satisfactory job. However, to call Smith satisfactory would not be justice at all. She is simply wonderful, in one of her last great performances, and the film is worth seeing for her work in it alone.

There but for the grace of God...

[Catharina_Sweden · 8/10 · 24 February 2014]

This was a strong and moving movie. In fact, it even made me both a bit upset and a bit depressed - because Miss Hearne's fate in upper middle age, was my own big fear before I met my husband and had my children. Not until I had two children I felt reasonably safe. This was because like Miss Hearne I had no siblings, and where she had only an old aunt, who later died, I had my parents - but they were also old and I knew that half my life I would live without them...

Miss Hearne's sad and lonely life, waiting for Mr Right who she as a young girl pictured as "tall, dark, and handsome" (well - what girl hasn't..?), in time lowering her expectations more and more, and seeking comfort in religion as well as the bottle - is only too common also in real life.

The acting was excellent all around, as was the picture of the time, and the melancholy mood created by bleak photo and classical music both beautiful and sad.

I really recommend this movie, but with one exception: if you are yourself in the same situation as Miss Hearse - then maybe you should not watch it. Because it is the opposite of feel-good, and can make you only sadder.

Best Performance of all time by an Actress

[fubar-2 · 15 February 1999]

This ranks with Agnes Moorehead in The Magnificent Ambersons and Katherine Hepburn in Long Day's Journey Into Night as the single greatest performance recorded on film by a woman. Maggie Smith will rip your heart out!

Warning...this film can be very troubling and depression. Consider this when you think about watching it.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 21 February 2020]

"The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne" features some really amazing acting. But I feel that I must warn you...it's also rather depressing and features a woman being raped. So, if you are yourself depressed or otherwise vulnerable, you might want to think twice about seeing this one.

Judith (Maggie Smith) is a middle-aged spinster who is rather poor as well. After moving into a new rooming house, she is interested in a somewhat younger man, James (Bob Hoskins) and she hopes that he is interested in her. However, when they do go out, he's more interested in using her than romance and your heart cannot help but break for poor Judith. Sadly, however, there's little in the way of sympathy for her, as the rooming house and its residents are a nasty, bitter group of folks. And, in addition, Judith is so desperate and lonely that she way over-estimates his interest in her.

Despite being a general downer to watch, watching the acting was pretty amazing...particularly that of Maggie Smith. I knew she was an excellent actress...that's no surprise. But she really was in top form here...and her crying sequence really tugs at your heart. She also was amazing as she played the piano and slowly began to be overwhelmed by grief....great acting but also so very sad to watch.

Overall, well made and interesting...but also like watching a slow-motion train wreck or a giant festering sore. If you can handle it, try it...otherwise, it's very tough going and rather miserable to watch. I cannot recommend it except for very strong folks who can handle the subject matter.

add an extra rating star (or two) for the acting

[mjneu59 · 6/10 · 2 December 2010]

A shy Irish spinster with a weakness for alcohol and religion entertains daydreams of marrying a (strictly small time) Dublin salesman, until she discovers (too late) that his interest is purely mercenary. Many viewers may find it an altogether depressing experience (which it is), but the glum scenario is well served by a talented cast, led by Maggie Smith, who brings the pathetic Miss Hearne to a vivid life in a performance notable more for its restraint. It takes a strong actor to successfully portray such a weak character, and the pleasure of watching a veteran like Smith navigate such a demanding role more than compensates for the lazy plotting and elusive climax.

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne

[CinemaSerf · 7/10 · 14 November 2022]

Maggie Smith offers quite a compelling performance in this adaptation of Brian Moore's novel. She is the eponymous piano teacher, having fallen on hard times since the death of her aunt (Dame Wendy Hiller). She comes to live in a boarding house in Dublin where she encounters a rather curious dynamic amongst the guests: the proprietress, her son, and her brother "Madden" (Bob Hoskins). She takes rather a shine to him, and the beautiful jewellery on her fingers leads him to believe that she might be useful backing his proposed hamburger business venture. Wires get crossed, and we discover that this lady has a few demons of her own. The story itself is fairly profound. It does not swipe at 1950s Dublin life, it exposes it to us. The hypocrisies of the church, of the middle class, the attitudes towards alcohol and sex are laid bare for us to observe and judge as we will. That is one of director Jack Clayton's better strategies for this ostensibly rather downbeat, frequently quite depressing piece of cinema. It doesn't deal at all with sectarianism, and is significantly more potent for that - it is very focussed on this woman adrift, hiding behind a facade as much of her own making as societal. Hoskins actually comes across as a bit of a cad, and quite a ruthless one at that, and there is a superbly seedy effort from Ian McNeice as "Bernard", whose corpulence and sleaziness contrast well with the supposed "respectable house" offered by his meddling landlady mother "Mrs. Rice" (Marie Keen). The story is episodic in nature, which does rob it of any real sense of progress, though. It resets itself once or twice too often, before an ending that, though slightly optimistic, has a sort of negating sense to it, too. The attention to detail is good, the Dublin scenarios, costumes and photography support, effortlessly, this leading lady in one of her best roles.

Maggie Smith is just............................WOW!!!

[donta49001 · 10/10 · 31 August 2005]

I own this VHS, which I found on eBay for like $5.00... I had no idea what a treasure I was receiving. I was looking for it because I will watch anything with Maggie Smith in it, and also because she won the Best Actress British Academy Award for it.

Maggie is in the top 3 of my favorite actresses. You give her a good role and she will just knock your socks off. She has mastered comedy and drama in a way that I haven't quite seen before. She does not play the role of Judith in this film. She IS Judith Hearne in all her depressing, desperate, lonely, and passionate glory. I could've cried my eyes out at her devastation over the spilling of the whiskey....and that's all I'm giving away. She simply reaches through the screen, grabs your heart, and rips it out of your chest. There is NO WAY you can see this film and not feel SOMETHING. It is one of the best, if not THE BEST performance by a female actor recorded.....and I've seen a lot of films.

I have no idea how this was missed by the Oscars, with practically zero money-making films like "Monster", "Monster's Ball", "Vera Drake", and "Million Dollar Baby" being recognized for the performances and not the commercial success now-a-days. Maggie's performance CRUSHED the nominees that year and the winner (Cher for "Moonstruck")... Find this, buy it, or something. My GOSH if you love a great performance, you just have to see this film!! You won't be sorry.

One of the Best Films of the 1980s

[gpadillo · 10/10 · 10 May 2005]

As Judith Maggie Smith turns in the performance of a lifetime and one of the best and most complete portrayals by any actor on film. This is an astonishing film, full of bleak Irish heartbreak, yet with the promise of hope.

Smith is a no less than a revelation in the title role and one cannot help but route for this desperate character even when all looks hopeless. The screenplay had been fought over for years by actresses of every stripe, with, for a while, Jane Fonda, leading the pack of actresses trying to get Judith onto the screen. It's a good thing Maggie Smith won out.

The ensemble cast of actors led by Bob Hoskins is fully up to Smith's standard and the emotional wallops this movie packs are big ones indeed.

George Delarue's score is simply perfect underlying with the exact weight and gravity - and sweetness - of every situation.

When is this thing coming out on DVD? It's simply ridiculous it hasn't yet appeared.

Highest recommendation.

Extraordinarily sensitive and insightful acting of even better then virtuoso quality

[tambareen · 10/10 · 14 June 2000]

I own this film and have watched it perhaps a dozen times. While it's a bit depressing I am totally captured and inspired by Maggie Smiths astonishingly deep portrayal of Judith Hearne. I'm sure I'll watch it another dozen times or more. What's SO compelling is the scope of the private look we're afforded into this beautifully drawn character. There are lots of glimpses of her alone, interacting with just her thoughts or with cherished photographs or with herself in the mirror.

This peek behind the private door is touching to the extreme. Its a pity this film is not better known because of all the films I know it most plainly shouts about what the ART of acting is all about. One sees FAR more deeply into the soul of a character by WATCHING the non verbal facial expressions. This face language cant possibly be done in a novel without ludicrous verbosity. Smith is an utter master at this subtle yet profound art of letting a thought show in the face. It's these deeply human feelings that all of us exude (when we KNOW no one can see us) that make this character so universal.

I actually think this virtuoso performance is better even then Her Jean Brodie.

All the other characters are very well delineated and extremely well played. Bob Hoskins also gives an extremely good performance

If you LOVE great ACTING where subtle deep profound feelings show clearly in an expressive face..this is the very best I've seen to date.

Unlike Miss Brodie, she never had a prime.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 28 January 2015]

I've been trying to find this movie for years, remembering the acclaim at the time of its release that Maggie Smith got, playing a character far different than anybody she's ever played before. She's an Irish Catholic, devoted to the memory of her abusive dead aunt (Wendy Hiller) who keeps moving from boarding house to boarding house with two pictures, one of Aunt Wendy, the other of Jesus, and desperately searching for romance. She doesn't pick the proper boarding house for an aging spinster with nosy landlady Marie Kean and her extremely perverted son (Ian McNeice), an obese slob who is seducing the 16 year old servant girl and pretty much harassing every tenant with his slimy manner. Reminding me of Charles Laughton in "Sign of the Cross", he is an effeminate (but straight) do-nothing who can be simply referred to as a waste of human space. Poor Judith has to put up with his innuendos, from rubbing a book of poetry on his crotch upon their first meeting to his attempt at blackmail upon learning of her friendship with his very American uncle (Bob Hoskins).

Judith has been spending time with Hoskins who has no romantic interest in her, only trying to convince Judith to invest with him in an American hamburger stand in the middle of Dublin. His rejection of her passion sends Judith to the bottle, and from there, her descent into degradation and alcholism is more shocking than everything you've ever seen the fabulous Dame Maggie play. She gives her all to making this character beyond pitiable, yet you can't help but like her. Obviously verbally abused by her wealthy Aunt, Judith has absolutely no self esteem, even if she finally gets to stand up to her aunt and remind her that nobody else is around to take care of her.

As for Hoskins, he's no angel either, obviously raping the 16 year old out of pure resentment towards his nephew. The first quarter of the movie is almost unbearable to watch because of its perverseness, but once Maggie's plight takes over, you can't help but be hooked. She's got a huge heart, as evidenced by taking a bottle to the hospital where a dying woman in pain needs some comfort, and her embarrassment over being caught. She then sinks further into desolation, and like Catherine Sloper in "The Heiress", is re-visited by Hoskins who makes one last plea to get her back into his life. This is Dame Maggie's film all the way, and while the depressing aspects of the film are sometimes very hard to take, her performance never is.

What is also very important to notice in this film is the character's devotion to her faith and her feeling that God has betrayed her for not bringing love into her life. For her, love is more than just finding companionship: it is her only bearable lightness of being. Her relationship with God and Jesus are so precious that when her lack of passion explodes into anger, it is a frightening scene of "Why have you forsaken me?" How many people (even those of strong religious faith) have not questioned the existence of God? Her attack on the alter of the Catholic church is as prominent in Dame Maggie's career as when she screamed "Assassin!" at the teenage girl who ruined her career in "Miss Jean Brodie".

A Haunting Tale of Despair and Hope, brilliantly acted

[mmoye · 10/10 · 17 December 2006]

I'll zero in on the heart of this largely unknown film: it's Maggie Smith's searing portrayal of the title character, a brave but broken woman yearning for the impossible: a knight in shining armor to help her salvage some meaning from life. Her 50's Irish Catholicism isn't doing the trick.

There's a scene, devastating to watch, when a desperate and drunken Judith Hearne pleads to enter the holy place where Christ lives - "Let me in, please," she cries "I want to be with you!" - because she's built her entire life on this illusion; there is no white knight, only a dumpy hustler from New York (Hoskins) - and Blanche-like, Judith Hearne dwells in impossible possibilities. Every time I see this scene, I'm struck with the notion that this may rank among the finest moments in acting any of us will ever behold.

This is ensemble acting at its finest, too. Perfect soundtrack, and the authenticity of 50's Dublin seems spot-on. Catch it when it comes, find it if you can at some artsy video shop - but for certain souls, here lies in wait a treasure.

wow!

[Gardiner · 10/10 · 17 March 2000]

had this film been properly distributed MAGGIE SMITH would have SURELY WON another OSCAR (her 3rd) - I have to agree with other users on this one - this HAS to be one of the greatest performances by an actress in all of cinematic history - watch it if only for seeing MAGGIE SMITH prove to you that she is indeed one of the GREATEST actresses that has ever graced the silver screen

Masterclass of acting

[Sir_Knight · 10/10 · 3 April 2008]

This film has to contain one of the contenders for Dame Maggie's best performance. If it wasn't for the appalling lack of efficiency of the film's distributor in America, I think that this could have earned her, her third Academy Award. Her accent has to be one of the finest Irish accents ever committed to film by a non Irish national. Her acting does carry the film for me. In this film you will also see one of the very rare times where Dame Maggie really lets rip, with a nerve shattering screech of a shout. It is quite unsettling when she does unleash this roar, full of pure emotion, completely in character, and without the need for false theatrics. Ian Mcniece is too theatrical in his accent for me, and Bob Hoskins is very good, but gets acted off the screen by Dame Maggie. Really this turns into a Dame Maggie vehicle. Not because its written for her (the book was published before the film came about), and not because she hogs the screen, it is simply because you become so enthralled with her character, you see Judith Hearne as a real person, and Dame Maggie as arguably the greatest actress of our time.

Brilliant look at a tragic life

[keefep_email · 6 May 2004]

Maggie Smith is enormously affecting as Irish piano teacher Judith Hearne, whose life is plagued by Catholic guilt; painful memories of her early life with a difficult, wealthy aunt; and the less-than-genteel situation in which she now finds herself. At the shabby boarding house where she lives, Hearne meets the brother of her landlady. As they become friendlier, she seizes on the chance that this man will save her from a dismal life as a poor spinster.

The uniformly fine cast includes Bob Hoskins and Prunella Scales. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough to anyone who enjoys character-driven stories.

Ashen Passion

[paul2001sw-1 · 5/10 · 15 October 2005]

It's said that the essence of tragedy is the sense of inevitability that accompanies it; but this is surely well qualified by the observation that such a sense should be retrospective. Once the calamity has struck, it must seem that it was unavoidable; but a story in which ultimate disaster seems at all times inescapable promises only misery to those who try to follow it. There's nothing badly done about this film of Brian Moore's book, 'The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearn'; but also no apparent grounds for hope, even false hope, at any point in the proceedings until the very closing reel. The result is painful without being particularly affecting, because the viewer has no incentive to buy into the suffering of its characters. Just as it's hard to make an interesting film about boredom, so an entertaining film about unhappiness is a tricky proposition; but (to give an example of another film set in historic Ireland) Alan Parker's version of 'Angela's Ashes' has a life to it that is lacking here, where the title tells us exactly what we are going to get: two painful hours of "lonely passion", utterly unremitted.

Magnificent Film

[alrodbell · 25 May 2005]

I can only agree with those others who see Smith's acting as consummate.

But for a film to provide the experience that this one did,everything has to work. A single false note would have dispelled the illusion, the transcendent illusion of experiencing a life.

Hoskin's prodigal brother, with his doorman job depicted as being in the Hotel Business, was in perfect pitch. The "artistic" son, was as real as he was of a type. Even the maid, in her libidinous sullenness rang absolutely true.

The ending (may be a spoiler for those who haven't seen it) was perplexing. After a scene of apparent acceptance of each others reality, Judith seemed to discard the address of her "suiter."

I choose to believe it is because she memorized it, and will soon ring him up, so they can share a cinema together.

Sometimes Letting Go of Life's Expectations Gives You Permission to Finally Live

[blpkst · 10/10 · 7 March 2021]

Maggie Smith won a Best Actress BAFTA award for this 1987 film that also stars the incredible Bob Hoskins. Smith plays Judith Hearne a down on her luck spinster in her fifties who repays the aunt who took in her orphaned self by dedicating herself to her dying and demented aunt. To her great misfortune, the aunt, upon dying leaves her nothing or there is nothing left for her to leave. To say Judith is now in reduced circumstances is an understatement of epic proportions. Her only meager income is giving private piano lessons to children.

When we meet her she is moving into yet another depressing sparsely furnished room in a boardinghouse. The others living in the house are so miserable, they home in with pinpointed accuracy any hint of weakness, character flaw, or vulnerability. Miss Hearne is an easy wounded target. The mean spirited landlady delights in adding to Miss Hearne's misery. Mrs. Madden is adept at finding weak spots and going for the jugular. The landlady babies her overweight slacker son, seemingly blind to his glaring faults, in front of the visibly disgusted borders at breakfast while she orders the maid to bring him eggs and four rations of bacon, "to keep up his strength," while they are offered nothing more than toast and tea.

Bob Hoskins, play the landlady's brother, Jim Madden, who has just come back to Ireland a broken man putting on a brave face. He is living in his sister's boardinghouse rent free and you can bet she doesn't appreciate it one bit. Miss Hearne brightens learning that he lived in New York City for 30 years. The other boarders bristle out of envy and jealousy of never having had the opportunity to go to New York City but like astute detectives conclude without masked delight that if all had been so great in New York Madden would not have come back. Nothing escapes them. Miss Hearne thinks with a shy glimmer of hope that Mr. Madden might be interested in her. He is but because he thinks she may have money to invest in his big business idea, a quick American lunch. She doesn't.

This film is a deeply felt character study dealing with life's bitterness, hopes, disappointments, and the frailty of the human condition. Maggie Smith won an Oscar in 1969 for her role as Jean Brodie, in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie." In Brodie she played a woman at the top of her game, in her prime, as confident as anyone could possibly be, as Judith Hearne, she is the polar opposite. You feel Judith's humiliation and pain. It is not until she gives up on her expectations of what she thought should or would happen in her life, that she gives herself permission to really live.

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne continues to be a favorite.

Maggie again tops Katherine & Meryl

[robertozerov · 10/10 · 27 September 2020]

Dame Maggie again proves she's #1... SUBTLY. Her genius turns nothing-new aging, alcoholism, hopelessness & even plotlessness into an exposee of the all-too-common life of waste. What could have been a who-cares downer confronts the autopilot in us all. Viewers must speculate on an ending for Judith - & for themselves, because "happy" closure is absent. Hollywood ignored this one: the budget was too low, it wasn't a blockbuster & it was too cerebral. Maggie should have won her 3rd Oscar, a film among the English language's 200 best.

Read the book first

[jchodyka-712-409893 · 8/10 · 8 August 2013]

It is quite a good adaptation of an excellent book by the same title written by Irish-Canadian author Brian Moore, sadly - one of the most under-appreciated writers of our times. The book deserved some major award, possibly even a Nobel price, for its portrayal of a lonely spinster living in the world of fantasy and her delusions until a moment when truth comes like a thunder but doesn't crush her but like in real life - makes her only stop for a while, gather emotional debris and continue on her usual way to oblivion. Like in real life she accept the sad reality - the fact so often forgotten by other writers who always long for happy end. There is no happy end if you are old, poor, lonely, eccentric, forgotten... The movie certainly captured the basic plot and dreary atmosphere of Dublin (or was it Belfast, can't remember) of the fifties. The author tried to show what character in the book thought and how interpreted situation - quite a novel approach in art of writing. In book it was awfully important as they all saw themselves and everything differently - another human habit which causes conflicts and wars. We really do have different minds which meet only sometimes and when that happens -there is a lot of denial, temporary confusion but at the end running away back to the comfort of our own thinking. The truth as objective is the most painful thing in the world to swallow. Unfortunately the movie couldn't show this the way book could. And about the actors. Maggie Smith and Bob Hoskins are certainly good performers, though typecast too often, but they were not the best choice for the movie. Judith is a mousy, slightly eccentric,not in tune with reality and hidden alcoholic which despite the best effort of afflicted would manifest itself in behavior. And Maggie is too rigid and dignified like all her upper social characters. The real Judith also tries to behave like a lady but something always gives her away. As to Bob - he is too sophisticated for the part unlike our hero - primitive sort of a chap with ugly motives. Much better are secondary characters: the housekeeper and her creepy son - the couple worth of a separate story. So watch the movie but read the book first. It will show you how the real world works which will be sort of discovery after watching sentimental products of TV or reading books recommended by our guru celebrities, where everything always has some higher purpose. But life as we see in the movie - often doesn't but is just a pointless journey towards nothing.

Fine performances by two stars at the peak of their post-midlife charms...

[moonspinner55 · 4/10 · 27 August 2006]

Maggie Smith is terrific playing an unmarried, unloved woman--who prays AND drinks with equal abandon--falling for a jovial working-class guy who is dating her because he thinks she's wealthy. Actors' piece about midlife romance and misunderstandings, adapted from Brian Moore's novel by Peter Nelson, is careful and leisurely-paced, unfolding without much melodramatic fuss. The acting by Smith and Bob Hoskins is enjoyable, but the screenplay has nowhere to turn in the second-act, and just goes around in circles. Director Jack Clayton admirably takes his time letting this story take shape, but the movie keeps going long after the story seems completed. ** from ****

A Moving Film

[coolbluegreen · 21 November 2003]

Why isn't this available on DVD? What is wrong with the studios? This is a very moving film. It is not entirely faithful to the wonderful book on which it is based, but that doesn't matter. It captures the lonely desperation of the characters, especially Judith. Ah, this is a sad film. It is a marvelous, sad movie, and it has two of the best actors ever -- Maggie Smith and the incomparable Bob Hoskins. Please -- release this on DVD!

The performance and the score

[Hjernekrigen · 8/10 · 4 June 2020]

The fact that Maggie Smith and the score did not get Oscar nominations is an outrage, no matter how little business the film did.

Mediocre soap opera containing the single greatest acting performance ever filmed

[jm10701 · 4 April 2012]

This is a mediocre movie containing one performance so brilliant and so powerful and so beautiful that it deserves ten stars all by itself. Obviously I'm talking about Maggie Smith as Judith Hearne. The other actors - Hoskins, Kean, McNiece and the rest - are fine, but beside Smith in THIS role they come off as amateurs.

The story is so annoyingly melodramatic and manipulative that I would have turned it off if Smith hadn't been there in almost every scene, transforming a cheap soap opera into a vehicle for the finest, smartest, rawest, most moving and most exhilarating acting performance I have ever seen in the thousands of movies I've watched in the past 60+ years.

Thank God this performance was not made tawdry and commonplace by winning an Oscar. It is much too good for so sleazy an award.

She doesn't steal your heart, she tears it out...

[dedeurs · 20 September 2019]

Only 21 reviews? The film may be a bit flawed on some levels, but is still a masterpiece. Because of her; La Smith. I don't think Maggie Smith has ever failed in a role. And Judith Hearne is one of her finest moments, as she didn't have to rely on an sophisticated, aristocratic charism. I love the Hearne character, even as I wanted to slap her sometimes.

Dame Maggie is at the top of her career right now, due to the Downton Abby craze and it's cinema version. I guess that if Maggie kicked Elizabeth II out of Buckingham palace and sat herself down in the royal chair, no one in England would protest....everybody, EVERYBODY loves the indestructible Dowager!

This movie is very touching and Maggie is truly royalty, a delightful woman, a unique actress, and her Judith won her numerous awards, but the film is mostly forgotten these days. And I will never forget that fire red 1950's spinster coat of hers....