Fatima: Story about a famous test of childhood sainthood is also a test of patience
By Linda Barnard
Rating: C-plus
Based on the real-life story of three Portuguese youngsters who said they repeatedly saw and communicated with the Virgin Mary in 1917, Fatima aspires to be a faith-based film with broader appeal.
And it almost seems it will get there when the first character onscreen isn’t a religious stoic, but Harvey Keitel (The Irishman).
Keitel plays Nichols, a skeptical author with a book in the works, who asks elderly nun Sister Lúcia (Brazilian actress Sonia Braga) about her assertion she repeatedly saw the Virgin Mary as a child.
Three Portuguese children stick to their story of seeing the Virgin Mary in Fatima
Hopes of seeing Pulp Fiction’s fixer getting to the bottom of a story that led to paths to sainthood for the children and the creation of a Catholic shrine visited by millions, vanish as Keitel’s character lobs softballs at the patient and smiling sister.
She sticks to the story that she and her two younger cousins saw the Virgin Mary 70-odd years before, receiving prophecies and faith-affirming instructions for the world.
In the midst of a global pandemic, what better time to release a movie that preaches the need to turn to the church and prayer to avoid future misery? The remake of the 1952 drama The Miracle of Our Lady of Fátima, based on Sister Lúcia’s memoires, arrives Aug. 28 after being postponed from an April release due to the pandemic.
The drama tells the well-known story of 10-year-old shepherd Lúcia (a convincingly pious Stephanie Gil) and her younger cousins Jacinta (Alejandra Howard, adorable) and Francisco (Jorge Lamelas) who claimed they saw the Virgin Mary (Joana Ribeiro) several times in 1917 near Fátima, Portugal.
Italian cinematographer Marco Pontecorvo (Pa-ra-da) directs with the same lush hand he brought to the first season of Game of Thrones and the HBO series Rome. The cardboard scenery look of the 1952 original is replaced with a big cast, drama and lingering closeups. It’s no surprise Pontecorvo’s recreation of the children’s visions about war, hell and a papal assassination seem more disaster movie and fantasy historical epic than religious inspirational. Pontecorvo’s interpretation of hades is terrifying, with a baby-toting demon stomping through flames as tormented souls shriek in agony.
Lúcia Moniz (Colin Firth’s housekeeper-turned-love-interest in Love Actually) plays Lúcia’s deeply religious mother, who doubts her daughter while fervently praying her soldier son will survive First World War battlefields.
Meanwhile the secular mayor (Goran Visnjic) and local government officials are anxious to pull the community into more modern times and three kids who claim to have seen the Virgin Mary aren’t going to help.
Aside from bracketing the story with the quizzical writer, the script by Pontecorvo, Valerio D'Annunzio and Barbara Nicolosi sticks to the well-known Fatima tale. Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli sings original song “Gratia Plena” over the end credits.
Fatima: Directed by Marco Pontecorvo. Starring Harvey Keitel, Goran Visnjic, Sônia Braga Stephanie Gil, Lúcia Moniz, Joaquim de Almeida and Joana Ribeiro. Available on VOD August 28