AllMovie

The well-worn story of an elderly, terminally ill person facing up to the certainty of death may never get a better screen treatment than in Paul Cox's modestly mounted but tremendously effective film. Leaving aside its subtext (lead actress Sheila Florance was actually terminally ill during production), the film is strong at maintaining an amazingly cheerful attitude about its subject without ever descending into bathos or slick sentiment. Martha is a woman who might be called a busybody in another context, but her concern for everyone else, from her nurse to her neighbors, is one way of dealing with her mortality; by looking outward, she can hold her own fears about approaching death at bay. As the film makes clear, though, Martha has always been a vital, engaging person, self-reliant and determined to live-and die-in her own way. Cox and cowriter Barry Dickins skillfully suppress any tendency of this inspiring story from going soft in the head, and the result is arguably Cox's finest achievement.