Movies
“Saint Maud” Hands Out Scary Isolation Terror
Saint Maud (2021) is a movie that will fuck you up. Plain and simple.
“A pious nurse becomes dangerously obsessed with saving the soul of her dying patient.”
Director: Rose Glass
Writer: Rose Class
Staring: Morfydd Clark, Caoilfhionn Dunne, Jennifer Ehle, Marcus Hutton, Carl Prekopp, Lilly Frazer, Lily Knight
Release Date: February 12, 2021
IMDB
Saint Maud (2021) is a movie that will fuck you up. Plain and simple. I heard this movie mentioned multiple times listening to The Ringer’s The Big Picture podcast and that led me to finally taking the plunge. Good lord, it is worth the discussion. This A24 production will leave you thinking about it weeks after you finish it. The movie is a brisk 90 minute philosophical thinker with an outstanding lead performance from Morfydd Clark. Saint Maud is an outstanding film that forces uneasiness upon you like a grandma force-feeding you extra helpings you aren’t ready for.
Maud (Morfydd Clark) is a nurse recently assigned to care for the lymphoma stricken Amanda (Jennifer Ehle). The young devout roman catholic medical worker is coming off a job at a hospital where she was unable to save someone’s life despite attempting CPR. Maud has doven deeper into her faith since the death of her patient at the hospital and her relationship with Amanda converts a slippery slope into a downright avalanche.
Maud is continuously praying to god looking for answers, but her mission in life is clouded. At least in her own mind. Things get messy when Amanda’s friends with benefits partner Carol (Lily Frazer) visits, creating a stir in Maud’s rhythmic care for her patient. Maud struggles with the fact that Amanda is finding euphoria with a human companion while she has constantly hinted at a greater purpose through religion and a higher being.
Carol and Maud go at it, and the argument gets back to Amanda. A few days after the scuffle, Amanda mocks Maud’s salvation attempt in front of a group of strangers. This bit of drunk erratic behavior results in Maud striking Amanda in front of everyone. She loses her job, and more than a bit of sanity.
Losing her patience and her job, Maud curses god and goes on a one-night bender. She visits a bar in search of that Carola and Amanda connection, but is rejected multiple times. She eventually pleasures a man and then goes home with a different man. While Maud is having sex she has a flashback to failing at CPR, and while this takes her out of the mood, her partner then rapes her and then mocks her as she leaves his flat.
Now scarred on multiple levels, Maud turns her attention back to religion. She sees what she has determined as a sign from god, and this results in yet another metal psyche switch. Maud cleans up her apartment, makes a homemade robe, dons her rosary beads, and then makes a trek back to Amanda’s apartment for what she deems as her ultimate spiritual pilgrimage.
The ending of Saint Maud is not scary in the normal sense of the word. There is nothing that will give you nightmares. There are no jump scares or horrid images. What makes the ending of Saint Maud is how Maud herself becomes even more ill than the dying person she once cared for. The medicine of eternal salvation poisoned Maud and resulted in the creation of a whole new ethos.
Saint Maud is a lesson of loneliness. Maud is an odd young woman, and she is working within the medical field which is stress filled and often unforgiving. One accident in an environment where death is not uncommon sends her down a path of self harm and deeper isolation. Maud was always devout in her religious beliefs, so when she failed once she doubled down on them. She overdosed on faith.
What an outstanding screenplay by first time major filmmaker Rose Glass. The writer and director had various shorts to her credit dating back to 2010, and much credit to A24 for finding her and bringing her to the forefront. According to an interview with Vulture, Glass had been thinking about this idea since 2014. She had flushed it out over the years using memories from her Christian upbringing and conversations with nurses and medical professionals who shared their stories of mental struggles and PTSD.
The mental rope-a-dope that Maud goes through is brought to life by Morfydd Clark. I would have loved to know what Clark thought when she had to act out an orgasm given to her by god. With that being said, Clark has a fantastic blend of maniac paranoia and quiet pain. Her concepts of interpersonal relationships are all messed up. The character of Maud is working and living around death and Clark brings her to life with an eerie calmness and crimped confidence. Maud is a character that needs validation in every way and she uses her relationship with god as a tether. Clark must have gone to a dark place to embrace this sense of isolation, and whatever process she did worked great with Glass’s vision..
Saint Maud has one of my favorite traits. It is confident. It has its vision and it sticks to it. At no point do I feel like the needle is pushed toward safety. Glass had a story she wanted to tell,and with crisp, terrifying precision, she painted her own picture with her unique strokes of perspective. The movie does not spell out anything for the viewer. It is an abstract piece of work that draws the lines for the audience to color in themselves. Most importantly, Saint Maud sticks with you to ensure its experience is not wasted.
STANKO RATING: B+
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