Agnes of God1985
Agnes of God (1985)
Agnes of God Photos
Movie Info
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Cast
as Doctor Martha Livingston
as Sister Agnes
as Mother Miriam Ruth
as Dr. Livingston's Mother
as Detective Langevin
as Father Martineau
as Justice Joseph Leveau
as Monsignor
as Eve LeClaire
as Eugene Lyon
as Sister Marguerite
as Sister Anne
as Sister Susanna
as Sister David Marie
as Sister Therese
as Sister Elizabette
as Sister Geraldine
as Sister Madeline Marie
as Sister Genevieve
as Sister Luke
as Sister Mary Joseph
as Sister Paul
as Housekeeper
as Helen the Receptionist
as Librarian
as Young Prostitute
as Sister Geneviève's Family #1
as Sister Geneviève's Family #4
as Sister Geneviève's Family #5
as Paramedic
as Newscaster
as Television Reporter
as Male Patient
as Female Patient
as Lab Technician
as Police Detective
as Sister Jeannine
Critic Reviews for Agnes of God
All Critics (31) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (13) | Rotten (18) | DVD (2)
Rich characters all. But their interplay is not always convincing. And when the mystery is finally solved, it is no great revelation.
What "Agnes of God" needed was a director like David "Scanners" Cronenberg, the Bergman of blood, who would compose a fantasia upon it, drag it down to its B-movie roots.
All three stars do smart, honorable work.
While Agnes of God has been considerably opened up, it is actually muddled in its transfer from stage to screen.
Despite all the anguished huffing and puffing, there isn't a single authentic moment in it.
It is Meg Tilly who makes the movie live. Her performance, which works on both realistic and symbolic levels, allows you to believe in the story.
Audience Reviews for Agnes of God
There are a lot of miscalculations by Jewison and Pielmeier here . . . the most damaging one is expanding the world of a small three person play into a movie with a larger cast and setting. This has the effect of making the film a mystery where the characters occasionally debate religion, where the play is mostly the latter and far more moving. Also, Fonda is horribly miscast . . . but I do like Bancroft and Tilly.
Super Reviewer
A powerhouse cast and a compelling story presented here by director Norman Jewison and beautifully filmed by cinematographer Sven Nyquist combined to make this a marvelous film. Meg Tilly radiates beauty, faith, and simplicity as Sister Agnes, a novice in an unnamed monastic order of nuns who is accused of murdering her newborn child. Jane Fonda plays a court appointed psychiatrist whose duty is to render a diagnosis that will allow the church and the courts to sweep this case under the rug, but who fights to find out what really happened. More detective than doctor, she follows the trail to wherever it leads, to the consternation of all. And Anne Bancroft, as the Mother Superior with her own secrets, wants this ordeal to be over before her own failures are revealed. Some of the early scenes, as the story was being set up, left this viewer a little confused and the relationship between the good doctor and a sympathetic police detective was largely unexplained. But, except for those shortcomings, this was a powerful film dealing with innocence and guilt and faith versus skepticism in a wholly believable manner. Questions remain, but the verdict rendered by the court seems just and fair, and the clash between faith and reason is not settled, but has reached a truce. One feels that an unlikely friendship has been established and that the good Dr Livingstone and Mother Superior Miriam Ruth share a mutual respect for one another as a result of these events.
Super Reviewer
People don't seem to believe that this film translates well in the present day but I still find it fascinating. Mind you, you can sort of take a wild guess as to what Agnes' grand secret is well before it is revealed on film.
Super Reviewer
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