Starring: Jane Fonda, Anne Bancroft, Meg Tilly, Anne Pitoniak, Winston Rekert Directed By: Norman Jewison Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: DVD Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Sony Pictures Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 99 Release Date: May 21, 2002 Running Time: 94 minutes Theatrical Release Date: September 13, 1985
Amazon.com: This Broadway hit gets a solid film treatment by director Norman Jewison, but that can't make up for the weaknesses of the script (which were as true onstage as they are here). Jane Fonda plays a chain-smoking shrink sent to a convent to do a psychological evaluation of a novice (Meg Tilly) who gave birth to a baby and then killed it in her little room. Was it a virgin birth? A miracle? And what of the bloody stigmata that seem to spontaneously appear on her hands? Fonda also finds herself clashing with the Mother Superior (Anne Bancroft) over the line between faith and science. But writer John Pielmeier can't flesh this out beyond an idea; in the end, the solution is a disappointingly earthbound one that even the strong acting in this film can't elevate. --Marshall Fine
Meg Tilly is astounding as Agnes I admire the work of both Anne Bancroft and Jane Fonda in this film, but it's Meg Tilly, whose work I previously had seen only in The Big Chill, who steals this picture as the troubled innocent who is the central character of this drama of the clash between science and faith. Agnes' final speech, when she tells the story of the man who visited her over the course of several nights, still gives me chills. I'm sorry that Tilly hasn't had more roles.
Agnes of God Norman Jewison's adaptation of the Broadway play makes for a gripping spiritual mystery, where no conventional solutions or answers materialize. The movie works as both whodunit and drama, as two strong women, one representing science, the other faith, go head-to-head to explain an unthinkable crime and determine the fate of the innocent at its center. All three leads make the most of what they're given, with the late Anne Bancroft and young Tilly particularly good. An involving, thought-provoking film from skilled veteran Jewison.
Secrets and lies, faith and science I picked up this movie recently as I remembered seeing its poster in the theaters at the place where we used to go to see movies. My mom told me that was a movie for adults, so it always had some intregue for me. Now that I am an adult (ha ha ha), it holds just as many questions and just as much mystery.
Jane Fonda plays Dr. Livingston, a court appointed psychiatrist who has been called in to investigate a mysterious murder case. A young woman has given birth and apparently killed her baby soon after. The young woman was Sister Agnes, a novice at a French Canadian convent. She has no memory of the event, and the Mother Superior is bent on keeping others out. She and Dr. Livingston would clash several times. Dr. Livingston is the voice of reason, the realist, the one who is determined to find the answers and a perfectly reasonable explination for everything. Mother Superior is the one who has put her faith in God, trusting enough to leave some things alone to that of the whims of fate. And Agnes, sweet, innocent little Agnes is at the center of it all.
In the conversations Dr. Livinston has with Agnes, we find that she is innocent but hiding an abusive past. She doesn't understand many things about the world, and that she had been locked in this convent all her life she had no means in which to learn. Why would she? This is the place where she is finding happiness away from her abusive past. This is hard for Dr. Livingston to accept, why any young woman would want to be a nun and live this way. Dr. Livingston has her own problems, and perhaps she wants to atone for her own mistakes by finding and answer. We also find out that Mother Superior is not so innocent either. She did not become a nun until later in life, had once been married, and choose to leave the world that Dr. Livingston comes from. It is reveiled that Agnes is the Mother Superior's niece, and that she suspected that Agnes was pregnant to the point that she put a waste basket in her room for her to dispose of the child once it was born. Mother Superior also wants to protect Agnes and keep others out from disrupting their quest for spiritual realization. Naturally, there will be clashes.
And under hypnosis, we hear about the night Agnes's child was conceived. Per the instruction of a dying elderly nun, Sister Paul (who Agnes also said saw the mysterious man) tells her to go to the secret passage behind a statue of St. Michael in the basement. Agnes follows the passage and goes to the barn, where she would meet HIM. From there she cannot describe what happened. She says she saw him from her window in the field everynight and he sang a beautiful song to her, so she knew him. *Shudder*
What fascinated me the most about this movie was the fact that Agnes was a true innocent, and as one she really did not know where babies come from, and it calls upon your faith which you thought was long since dead. So who was the father? If you believe in science, it was a man. If you believe in faith, it was God. These are the only two answers possible. But, we will never know. But it just can't be, your rational side says to you. Yet, you hear Agnes's side of the story under hypnosis and you will always wonder, plus hearing her sing the song that her mysterious midnight visitor would sing to her. Even in this day and age, there are some that are truly blessed with the ability to communicate with the spiritual world. Agnes truly is of God.
Excellent religious movie...with a suspense and mystery twist!!! NOTE: This review of mine is for the movie on VHS, not the DVD. Another review will be written when I get the DVD.
A very suspenseful movie with a mystery twist, 1985's Agnes of God stars Jane Fonda, Anne Bancroft, and Meg Tilly. A young nun, Sister Agnes (Tilly) gives birth to a baby girl in her convent room on the 3rd floor, but virtually has no knowledge of being pregnant and having the baby. Jane Fonda plays Dr. Martha Livingston, the psychiatrist who is appointed by the court to talk to Agnes and get whatever details she can get regarding the case (and being nagged by her colleagues for taking too long to resolve it). But, the case seems to drag on for a certain period of time, as Dr. Livingston tries to unscramble the mystery of the situation. Anne Bancroft plays the Mother Superior Miriam Ruth, who doesn't approve of Dr. Livingston's works of psychiatry. This movie's story is kind of strange as Agnes acts as though the pregnancy never happened in her life. Her behavior at first seems to give viewers the impression that she knows nothing about sex, pregnancy, what causes pregnancy, the physical difference between men and women (this obviously means that she never even took a sex ed class in school or that her mother didn't have a talk with her about the subject of sex), etc. Questions in this story that are never answered are: Who was the father of the baby? and How did a man get into the convent and have sex with Agnes? There are some disturbing details about Agnes' background in this movie, such as being molested by her mother and being made fun of, and saying that her mother "watches and listens". The blood scenes were very haunting and scary. The hypnosis scenes were frightening and dramatic as well. The final ruling in the court reveals that she was in no manner responsible for her actions that night. Very suspenseful movie and Norman Jewison did a great job directing it. Bancroft, Fonda, and Tilly were all excellent in their roles as well. Will get the DVD soon!! I love this movie!!
timeless I will never get tired of watching this movie. I'm glad that DVDs last longer than VHS! That is how many times I have watched this movie. The performances are delightful.
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