Art is usually about the ego. We think of the greats—Picasso, Dalí, Warhol—and we see people who desperately wanted to be seen. But the Many Beautiful Things film tells a story that's the polar opposite of that. It’s a quiet, almost startling look at Lilias Trotter, a woman who had the world at her feet in Victorian England and decided to walk away from it all. Honestly, if you're tired of the loud, fast-paced digital noise of 2026, this movie feels like a deep breath of cold air.
It’s directed by Laura Waters Hinson. You might know her from As We Forgive, but this project is different. It’s part documentary, part ethereal visual poem. Michelle Dockery (yes, Lady Mary from Downton Abbey) provides the voice of Lilias, while John Rhys-Davies voices John Ruskin. If you know anything about 19th-century art, Ruskin is a massive deal. He was the most influential art critic of his time. And he told Lilias she could be the greatest living painter in England.
Then she left.
The Tension Between Fame and Faith
Most people don't get why someone would choose obscurity. We live in an era of personal branding. So, watching the Many Beautiful Things film can be a bit of a culture shock. Ruskin literally told Trotter that if she devoted herself to art, she would be "immortal." That’s a heavy word.
But Lilias had this nagging feeling. She was deeply involved with the YWCA and felt a calling to missionary work in Algeria. She didn't just want to paint the world; she wanted to serve it. The film captures this internal tug-of-war beautifully through a mix of live-action reenactments and stunning animations of her actual watercolors.
The watercolors are the star of the show.
They aren't just sketches. They are hyper-detailed observations of leaves, desert landscapes, and people. Hinson uses a "parallax" effect to make these 2D paintings feel 3D. It’s not cheesy CGI. It’s subtle. It makes you feel like you’re stepping into her sketchbook.
Why John Ruskin Matters Here
Ruskin is often portrayed as a bit of a curmudgeon in history books. In this film, you see his vulnerability. He was obsessed with "seeing." He believed that if you truly looked at a leaf, you were looking at the divine. In Lilias, he found a student who saw better than he did.
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Their relationship wasn't romantic. It was intellectual and spiritual. When she told him she was moving to North Africa, he was devastated. He thought she was throwing her life away. The film uses their real letters to build the dialogue. No fake scripts. Just the actual words of two people arguing over the soul of art.
The Visual Language of the Many Beautiful Things Film
Let’s talk about the cinematography for a second. It was shot by Buddy Squires, who is a legend in the documentary world (he’s worked on almost every Ken Burns project). He treats the Algerian sunlight like a character.
The contrast is wild.
You go from the damp, grey, structured world of London to the blinding, sandy heat of Algiers. It mirrors Lilias’s internal shift. She went from the "safe" path of high society to a place where she wasn't even allowed to speak to the local women at first.
Lilias wasn't a typical missionary of that era. She didn't go in with a colonial mindset. She learned Arabic. She studied Sufi mysticism to find common ground with the people she met. She spent 40 years there.
Forty years.
That’s a level of commitment we rarely see documented. The Many Beautiful Things film doesn't gloss over the hardship, either. She suffered from health issues—her heart was literally failing for much of her time in Africa—but she kept painting. She kept writing.
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Breaking the "Standard Documentary" Mold
Usually, documentaries follow a predictable arc: person is born, person does thing, person dies, experts talk.
Hinson breaks this.
The film feels more like a diary. It’s non-linear in its emotional beats. You’re led through it by Dockery’s narration, which is hushed and intimate. It feels like you’re eavesdropping on a private prayer.
There's also a lack of talking heads. You won't see twenty different professors in ties explaining why she was important. Instead, the film trusts the art to speak. It trusts the viewer to sit in the silence. It’s risky. In a world of 15-second TikToks, a movie that asks you to look at a painting of a flower for a full minute is radical.
What This Film Teaches Us About Modern Success
We're all obsessed with "more." More followers, more money, more recognition.
Lilias Trotter chose "less."
But the irony—and the film nails this—is that by choosing less, she found a different kind of "more." Her sketches, which were never intended for a gallery, are now considered masterpieces of Victorian botanical art. She found a way to merge her faith and her creativity without compromising either.
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She didn't stop being an artist when she became a missionary. She became a better artist because her "seeing" was now fueled by love rather than ambition.
Practical Takeaways for the Creative Soul
If you watch the Many Beautiful Things film, you aren't just getting a history lesson. You're getting a roadmap for a meaningful life. It challenges the idea that you have to choose between your passions and your values.
- Observe the small stuff. Lilias found the infinite in a single petal. Stop rushing.
- Value over Fame. Decide what stays when the applause stops.
- Legacy is accidental. She never tried to be famous, yet here we are talking about her a century later.
The film isn't just for religious people, and it's not just for artists. It’s for anyone who has ever felt like they’re running a race they didn't sign up for. It’s a quiet rebellion against the "hustle."
How to Watch and What to Look For
You can find the film on various streaming platforms like Amazon Prime or through the official Many Beautiful Things website. When you watch it, pay attention to the sound design. The rustle of the pages, the wind in the desert, the scratch of the nib on paper—it’s an ASMR dream.
It’s also worth looking up the companion book by Miriam Huffman Rockness, A Passion for the Impossible. She’s the scholar who spent years tracking down Lilias’s lost journals and is largely responsible for this story being told at all.
Honestly? Don't watch this on your phone.
Put it on the biggest screen you have. Turn off your notifications. Let the colors wash over you. It’s a rare piece of media that leaves you feeling better than when you started.
To truly appreciate the depth of the Many Beautiful Things film, start by looking at your own daily routine. Identify one thing you do solely for the "applause" of others and consider what it would look like to do it only for the beauty of the act itself. Follow this by exploring the digital archives of Lilias Trotter's watercolors available through the Wheaton College special collections; seeing the high-resolution scans of her original notebooks provides a visceral connection to the hand-drawn life depicted on screen. Finally, take a sketchbook or a camera outside and spend thirty minutes documenting a single square foot of ground. The goal isn't a masterpiece; it's the practice of "seeing" that Ruskin and Trotter championed—a practice that remains the most effective antidote to the frantic pace of modern life.