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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.

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.

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!

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.

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....