St. Therese Movie Review
...h Mel Gibson’s film as well. She uses significant examples to prove her point throughout this whole essay. “The audience was supposed to be persuaded, for example, of the Martin family’s great mutual affection by seeing them all hugging one another every few minutes, and telling one another how much they adored each other.” Her point by using this example is that this is lousy storytelling, and it didn’t seem realistic. This type of example helps the reader to fully understand what the author of this critique is thinking during the whole movie. Therese’s family life is an underlining theme throughout the whole film. Thus, it should be a fairly accurate detail. Murphy paid very close attention to very small details in this film, such as appropriate furniture for the time period. However, Murphy feels that the company should have spent more money on high-quality actors than on buying set pieces. This awareness of details that others may not have noticed is very useful for the reader. The most memorable actor to Murphy was Linda Hayden, who played Therese’s sister Pauline. Hayden made Murphy think of a “real live person rather than a badly-written bit of hagiography.” A hagiography is a biography of saints, or idealizing or idolizing. Murphy wishes that there were more actors like Hayden, in this film, and believes that having that would have made a huge difference. Professional actors are much more dependable and can simply portray characters better. Murphy’s main complaint for this film was that it had an “artistically inappropriate tone.” She continues by including another person’s review, and states that she agrees with her statement of Therese being a “pretty movie.” That is why the film was inappropriate-artistically. She doesn’t say that she doesn’t like pretty movies, but she just believes that this film should not have been so “pretty.” Her reasoning for this is because of St. Therese’s “little way,” which was a battle for her, and was anything but pretty. This “little way” was not supposed to be big hence the little, and “It is also mysterious and adventurous, sometimes dark as pitch and messy as a hospital birthing room; and as glorious.” Murphy uses very strong examples that clearly state her point, and by having these strong views she can easily persuade someone to not see the movie. She shares the fact that even in St. Therese’s autobiography her “little way” is “the will to do small things perfectly….” She supports all of her ideas so nicely. She even includes some details from the film in order to further explain her point. Everything comes down to the film being “pretty,” and Murphy believes that Leonardo De Filippis, the director, should not have portrayed it this way. The author of this critique has a very organized structure, strong vocabulary, and uses a variety of simple, yet informative, w...