Dec 3

Dec 3 'Benedetta' film review: 'Showgirls' director takes on a lesbian nun

The director of 'Basic Instinct' recounts the real-life story of a controversial 1600s lesbian nun investigated for heresy in the historical drama 'Benedetta' (in theaters Dec. 3).

In short: After Sister Benedetta (Virginie Efira), a 17th-century nun in Italy, develops into an affair with another nun, she starts suffering disturbing visions. Daphne Patakia, Charlotte Rampling and Lambert Wilson also star.

The 'film by Paul Verhoeven' label comes with a certain amount of baggage. Verhoeven films are typically steeped in scathing satire, but they are not exactly known for their subtlety or nuance. Anyone on the fence about watching 'Showgirls' director's take on a nun's forbidden lesbian tryst need only ask themselves 'are you offended by a rudimentary dildo being carved out of a figurine of the Virgin Mary?' If the answer is 'yes,' then 'Benedetta' isn't a 'must-see' flick.

'Benedetta' is an odd layering of tones. Sometimes it's a straight up Skinemax flick, which just seems like the low-hanging fruit Verhoeven could not resist as he depicts the forbidden trysts between two nuns. Other times its cartoonish, over-the-top violence has a cheesy, retro texture to the beheadings and medieval brutality. In these moments, the film becomes exactly what anyone familiar with Verhoeven would expect from a Verhoeven flick. And for most of the movie (with the exception of the closing of the third act) Charlotte Rampling seems like she's in a completely different movie, specifically a drama focused on faith and power.

While Verhoeven film becomes a bit broad at times, Efira’s calculating and impassioned performance totally anchors the film. It’s clear the Benedetta herself is a true believer - that much is probably the only certitude in the entire film. Efira radiates total conviction … yet there’s a keen sharpness she brings to Benedetta that makes the titular character either totally devout or the architect of a massive hoax. Her performance is so unnervingly convincing that it actually keeps the audience off balance as well - carefully walking the tight rope between fraud and mystic with incredible precision. This allows the audience a totally participatory role of trying to figure out for themselves whether Benedetta had a truly supernatural connection to God or if she was simply a master of deception and manipulation.

For as violently and sexually graphic as Verhoeven's film becomes - the man simply cannot help himself - it's most compelling when it explores the political machinations of the church, which is virtually the second half of the movie. The film's drama comes from the intersection of Catholic dogma and the church's power structure - in this case: is Benedetta a bonafide mystic or a clever, opportunistic charlatan? The film delights in playing coy with the genuine spiritual connection between Benedetta and God. At times, it appears the young woman's prayers are seemingly answered in real time - yet, at other times, it's transparently clear Benedetta is the architect of these less-than-divine inventions and 'miracles.'

As with pretty much every biographical drama, 'Benedetta,' should not be mistaken for historically accurate docudrama. That said, writer-director Verhoeven deserves some credit for unearthing this story, apparently almost lost to history, and adapting the book 'Immodest Acts' to bring light to this peculiar, obscure bit of church history. And to be quite clear, although Benedetta finds herself at the center of an inquiry into her alleged sins (her carnal knowledge of a fellow nun), the horrific actions enacted on the church's order is certainly this film’s damning indictment of the 17th century Catholic Church.

Final verdict: if history is anything close to the basic plot points of this film, perhaps Verhoeven is the only filmmaker capable of telling this story of the sacred and the profane.