A number of reviewers seemed to be blown away by this movie. I didn't find it particularly "brilliant," nor for that matter, very engaging. A middle-aged physician at a medical conference (away from his wife and family) begins a painfully halting flirtation with an attractive divorcée. Yet later, in a crowd scene, he grinds up against a nubile adolescent who turns out to be her daughter. This peculiar set of circumstances can't go anywhere good and sure enough, it doesn't. That in itself seems to provoke interest for some, but the pace is so slow that you get tired of waiting for things to gel and something significant to occur. As a result, most of the film felt unconnected and vaguely irrelevant. In fact, entire scenes could have been cut without affecting the story very much. In the last half hour, matters finally begin to coalesce, but other than an ironic set of tension-producing coincidences at the conclusion, there is really nothing new or unexpected here. In fact, it becomes disappointingly predictable, as if torn from the news. The biggest problem with having pretty Maria Alche' in the lead role is that she looks much older than the script indicates (she was 21 when the film was released) and is obviously not an innocent. It diminishes the sense of immorality(and probable illegality) surrounding the sexual advance made upon her by the physician when that sense is central to the premise and the concluding events.
Review of The Holy Girl
