A truly strange brew, coupling probing, thoughtful questions of faith and religion with the kind of sexual ribaldry and scatological humor you'd expect from a picture that's already being shorthanded as "the lesbian nun movie."

Verhoeven does, mixing lurid, cynical exploitation with fluid storytelling and the principled irreverence of a satirist whose art always punches up against institutional dogma and scores a knockout.

A lot but not quite enough, Benedetta has the odd distinction of being both OTT and underwhelming...While some zealots may find Verhoeven's latest to be irreligious, for many others, it simply preaches to the choir.