The wisdom of the film, which follows the short-but-pious life of a 19th Century French nun, is likely to be lost on those who aren't Roman Catholic, particularly the one-way conversations with statues and Therese's epiphany that "I don't need to grow up, I need to become more and more little and meek."
But if you enjoyed reading the saint's popular autobiography "Story of a Soul," you might like watching this stiff, earnest costume biopic on the big screen before it's consigned to a life of church-basement screenings and night-before-exam crams.
Therese (Lindsay Younce) is the youngest of five daughters born to a mouse-like watchmaker (director Leonardo Defilippis) in the late 1800s. After her mother dies, her sisters begin departing for the Carmelite convent and Therese yearns to follow them (perhaps because her father has the unsettling habit of calling her his "queen").
She is too young to be admitted, but after a famous act of will in front of the Pope (who defers to the convent elders), she is allowed to enter at age 15. In short, she is rewarded for her audacity with the chance to be meek.
It's here where the story gets a little warmer though, perhaps because our heroine meets with some persnickety nuns, perhaps because the nuns are played by better actresses.
Despite some luscious, puffy-sleeved costumes, Therese and her family deliver their lines like melodramatic drones: "You're the most wonderful sister in the world." "No, you are."
It's as if people a hundred years ago - especially saints' families - weren't as human as they are today. Perhaps fittingly, the film's stand-out moment is a protracted death-bed scene, in which its heroine finally seems to come to life.
Though it's shot on location in Oregon, France and Rome, and laced with lovely music by Sister Marie Therese Sokol, the way director Defilippis tells it, Therese's story would work better as a marionette show than on the big screen. The camera is best at picking up subtleties, and there are simply none here. Review by Ellen Fox - Chicago Tribune
