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***Spoiler Warning*** for those who are unfamiliar with the life of St. Therese

When I went to see this movie, I expected it to be largely pious sentimentalism. There was indeed some of that in the movie, but there were points where there was a serious, deep portrayal of episodes of the life of St. Therese Martin of Lisieux. Some of these included the scenes of Pauline entering the Carmel, the process of Therese herself entering, and her death.

In my opinion, the scenes of Therese adjusting to life in the Carmel are done quite well. Several scenes of unexpected humor are a pleasant surprise. Some of the drawbacks to the movie are uneven acting and a sentimental soundtrack that sometimes feels like an intrusion into the movie. Despite these deficiencies, I think that this movie is an accurate depiction of the life of St. Therese as portrayed in her book "The Story of A Soul," and I am confident that it will deepen the spiritual life of those who see it.

This film suffers from the skewed view of human nature that infects much of European film, and indeed western culture. The sisters in this film are reduced to their sexual natures. We view them only through their sexual desires, the other aspects of their personalities are glossed over and subsumed into these sexual desires. Many have stated that this film is real, but I have to disagree. I do not think that teenagers are solely the selfish, sexualized beings depicted here. A few are, and their hormones are certainly raging, but they cannot be reduced to their sexuality. This film depicts teenagers the way many western intellectual elites want them to be, not the way they really are. The sisters' natures are one-dimensional.

I Anais' actions and reactions at the end of the film to be totally unrealistic. I cannot imagine a 12 year old girl behaving that way in that situation.