The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne

Judith Hearne (Maggie Smith) is a middle-aged "maiden lady" piano teacher living in 1950s Dublin. Timid and self-deprecating, Judith permits herself to yearn over her new boarding-house neighbor, hotel entrepreneur Bob Hoskins. Hoskins thinks that Judith has enough money to bankroll his latest ...more

Largely unknown in the United States, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne contains what is arguably Maggie Smith's finest film performance. When playing eccentric characters, Smith is sometimes accused of being mannered, but there is nothing phony or artificial in this unsparing portrayal of a forlorn, quietly desperate spinster. Judith Hearne has never lived her own life and has kept her innermost desires and secrets bottled up, both metaphorically and literally, as Hearne is a drinker. Smith ...more