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"Confined to a wheelchair for most of her life, lonely Christine (Sylvie Testud) devises a plan to change her circumstances by journeying to Lourdes, the small town in the foothills of the Pyrenees, where many flock to be healed. The journey yields startling results for our isolated hero in director Jessica Hausner’s Austrian drama, an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival."
Here are some reviews:
4 stars:
You have to keep in mind what serves as its subtitle: Nothing tests faith more than a miracle! That is what the real substance of this film is. When it is no longer, “why me, why do I have this illness?” but rather, “why was I the one to be healed?” A sad mystery followed by a happy mystery. Both moments of faith, with this film suggesting that the second mystery is a blessing and a test in its own way. This film looks at all those involved, as it is about the faith community in which this miracle happened. Having the miracle happen to someone with MS, makes this test of faith all the more daunting. Will the results last? As one woman says, “only if it is a miracle!” So the young woman who now physically can walk, must continue her faith walk.
5 stars:
I loved this movie. It encapsulates everything that one of these pilgrimages for healing would be. The careful anticipation, the doubt and disbelief, the miraculous, and the reminder of the fragility of either miracles or faith in this world. I thought it was beautiful all around.
2 stars:
High-school-level philosophy; perhaps because it wants to address a relatively large chunk of people out of those who are supposed to be able to think on their own.My best friend’s 27-year-old brother got cured from the last stage of terminal lung cancer after drinking from the water in Lourdes. He was coughing up blood when they arrived. After a drink from the water he ran to the village to pick up water bottles. Seven years later, he is fine. He never went before a committee. Miracle is an intimate experience: only for the person.When attempting to create the ambiance, this film gives one third of its attention to philandering volunteers, another chunk to the commercial enterprise, and to a remarkably atheistic/idiotic staff, including priests. Inane ideas abound (e.g. “The Best Pilgrim of the Year”).The reason why I am giving it two stars, instead of one, is that it at least makes the average person think. Sadly, the tools it provides are insufficient to answer the questions it poses.
4 stars:
This movie, IMO, well portrays the questions surrounding the miraculous cures at Lourdes, the apparently miraculous cures that may not last, and the wonder at who is chosen, while documenting the experience of a pilgrimage that to some seems just another kind of tour.It also debunks such shallow notions as a “normal life” and that one can tell whether or not another person is truly pious.
4 stars:
A meditation on faith and healing told from the perspective of a young woman with MS. A quiet, slow moving, procession through Lourdes from the point of view of a pilgrim. Well handled with an ambiguous ending that worked.
"Confined to a wheelchair for most of her life, lonely Christine (Sylvie Testud) devises a plan to change her circumstances by journeying to Lourdes, the small town in the foothills of the Pyrenees, where many flock to be healed. The journey yields startling results for our isolated hero in director Jessica Hausner’s Austrian drama, an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival."
Here are some reviews:
4 stars:
You have to keep in mind what serves as its subtitle: Nothing tests faith more than a miracle! That is what the real substance of this film is. When it is no longer, “why me, why do I have this illness?” but rather, “why was I the one to be healed?” A sad mystery followed by a happy mystery. Both moments of faith, with this film suggesting that the second mystery is a blessing and a test in its own way. This film looks at all those involved, as it is about the faith community in which this miracle happened. Having the miracle happen to someone with MS, makes this test of faith all the more daunting. Will the results last? As one woman says, “only if it is a miracle!” So the young woman who now physically can walk, must continue her faith walk.
5 stars:
I loved this movie. It encapsulates everything that one of these pilgrimages for healing would be. The careful anticipation, the doubt and disbelief, the miraculous, and the reminder of the fragility of either miracles or faith in this world. I thought it was beautiful all around.
2 stars:
High-school-level philosophy; perhaps because it wants to address a relatively large chunk of people out of those who are supposed to be able to think on their own.My best friend’s 27-year-old brother got cured from the last stage of terminal lung cancer after drinking from the water in Lourdes. He was coughing up blood when they arrived. After a drink from the water he ran to the village to pick up water bottles. Seven years later, he is fine. He never went before a committee. Miracle is an intimate experience: only for the person.When attempting to create the ambiance, this film gives one third of its attention to philandering volunteers, another chunk to the commercial enterprise, and to a remarkably atheistic/idiotic staff, including priests. Inane ideas abound (e.g. “The Best Pilgrim of the Year”).The reason why I am giving it two stars, instead of one, is that it at least makes the average person think. Sadly, the tools it provides are insufficient to answer the questions it poses.
4 stars:
This movie, IMO, well portrays the questions surrounding the miraculous cures at Lourdes, the apparently miraculous cures that may not last, and the wonder at who is chosen, while documenting the experience of a pilgrimage that to some seems just another kind of tour.It also debunks such shallow notions as a “normal life” and that one can tell whether or not another person is truly pious.
4 stars:
A meditation on faith and healing told from the perspective of a young woman with MS. A quiet, slow moving, procession through Lourdes from the point of view of a pilgrim. Well handled with an ambiguous ending that worked.