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by Jim Pappas Published: April 30, 2005
 Amalia (Maria Alche) consoles Dr. Jano (Carlos Belloso) in, “La Nina Santa (The Holy Girl).” I’m positive all of us can remember adolescence. Sure. Anyway, “La Nina Santa (The Holy Girl)” is about a young girl and her first experience with sexuality, and a few other things as well. There is a lot that rings true in this film, and there are surprises, as slowly and deliberately as they are approached by director (and writer) Lucrecia Martel. The best way I can describe Ms. Martel’s directorial style here is by comparing the film to a short story, where the film is exactly, word for word, a transposition of that short story. I mean there are long, lingering shots on faces where I can just imagine their thoughts, thoughts that are written out in the book By affixing the camera lens on faces, we are able to interject our own ideas as to what the person is thinking, but this process is just so agonizingly slow that we begin to wish for the end. However, the film does have a relevant and surprisingly effective story. Young Amalie (Maria Alche) is studying the Bible, and is caught up with the idea that she must have a holy calling (a “vocation” is the English translation). That calling manifests itself in her mind with her fixation upon a doctor (Jano, played by Carlos Belloso) who is attending a congress at the hotel where Amalie lives with her mother (Mercedes Moran as Helena). Her fascination with Dr. Jano begins because he presses himself up against her from behind, while standing in a crowd watching a street performer. Dr. Janos is possibly a pedophile, but Amalie is not exactly a child, and I believe (although we aren’t told here) she is 13 or 14 years old. Nevertheless, Dr. Jano’s actions are at best indicative of a sexually related psychological problem. To further complicate matters, Amalie’s mother, Helena, has a crush on Dr. Jano, and he, more or less, has some kind of attraction to her as well. Dr. Jano is married and invites his wife and children to come to the hotel later, so you can see what kind of emotional mess things can become in a situation as I’ve described above. Amazingly enough, the film has a kind of surprise ending that ties up all of the meandering threads the rest of the film had unwound in front of us. That was unexpected to me, as I was wondering where the film was headed as I was watching it. Ultimately, what it is showing us is a bit of the lives of people we know, people who are quite like ourselves. Ms. Martel has some room to grow as a director, but as a writer she sure knows how to keep one guessing. There are good performances all around, including Argentine beauty Mia Maestro as Amalie’s Bible teacher, Ines, Alejandro Urdapilleta as Helena’s brother, Freddy, Marta Lubos as the hotel matron, Mirta, and a very effective Julieta Zylberberg as Amalie’s friend and co-conspirator, Josefina. The two young girls play off of each other and are what our parents would have called “bad-influences.” “La Nina Santa” is just a little slice of life and coming-of-age story with modest ambitions. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, and the repercussions from everything that happens in the film aren’t overly dramatic or hard to believe or accept. That is the good. The bad is that the film moves so slowly towards its climax that just getting to the end is a relief. If Ms. Martel had spent a bit less time with lingering shots, the movie would be better than it is. The film enters limited release in Los Angeles on May 13th. It opened in New York on April 29th, I am told. Overall Rating: B- |
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