In south-western France, there exists a small town named Lourdes, which has taken on the function of being a place where Christian pilgrims come in search of miracles. Sort of a mass faith-healing center. It serves as the center of Jessica Hauser's "Lourdes".
Christine (Sylvie Testud) is a quiet, unassuming, adorable, wheelchair-bound young lady, who has come to Lourdes. She is presented as not being there so much to be cured as to have something to do. Her traveling church group consists of mostly lonely people who wonder why they have been so afflicted in life, although their grousing is limited to a bare minimum. The group goes to the healing grottos, baths and various other rites. An older woman is drawn to Christine and she pushes her wheelchair for her, always making sure to get Christine good placement at all of the ceremonies. When she is not squiring Christine, she is bowed in prayer to statues of the Virgin Mary.
"Lourdes" is excruciatingly slow in pace, focusing on pilgrim's faces and the day-to-day goings on. Finally, something happens that shakes everyone in the group, and their reactions range from finding it to be a miracle to wondering why they have not experienced anything extraordinary.
Testud does a fine job but everyone else is, at best, ordinary. Hauser wants us to examine the meaning of miracles while poking little jabs at the entire scenario at Lourdes, and she leaves it up to us to figure out what will happen in the future by using a little plot twist. At the end, the only miracle I was aware of was that it was finally over.
| Movie title | Lourdes |
|---|---|
| Release year | 2010 |
| MPAA Rating | NR |
| Our rating | |
| Summary | The great French film star, Sylvie Testud, stars in this examination of whether or not a miracle can occur if you pray hard enough, or not at all. |
