Catholic-ometer: 5 of 5
Enjoyability: 4.5 of 5
I'd nearly been soured to this film early on by the opinions of some of my relatives, but the movie itself eventually won me over. The acting is fantastic, the story is endearing, and the special effects are surprisingly believable.
This movie is about a lot of things; the apparitions at Lourdes, the spiritual journey of Henri Giullaumet at the time of the apparitions and healings, and the modern-day study of the whole affair by his descendant; Bernard. Because of this, the film flits constantly between two different time periods, which can be a bit distracting if you walked in late, but if not, you should pick up on what the movie is doing fairly quickly.
Both Henri and Bernard seem to start out the movie as adamant atheists, who must gradually learn that there's more to life than 1s and 0s; a harder lesson for Henri, it would seem, since he's staked so much on his atheism and rationalism.
The film moves a bit slowly at times, which can actually be a benefit, and some of the minor characters are a bit irritating at first, but the major characters are the real focus, and they do manage to go through some interesting development over the course of the movie, in spite of Henri's stubbornness. The movie's not over-the-top in its depictions of the characters, but it is entirely faithful to what really happened there, which is something we can all be thankful for.
On top of this, I also feel I should mention the sets and costume-design. They were very well-done as well. I'd have given it five stars in enjoyment as well, except that the ending was a bit abrupt. On the whole, I'd say that there's no good reason for Catholics not to watch this. It's a good, inspirational film with a strong storytelling talent, and what's not to love about that?
No comments:
Post a Comment