
When a dead newborn is found wrapped in bloody sheets in a wastebasket in the bedroom of a young novitiate, psychiatrist Martha Livingston is called in to determine if the seemingly innocent novice, who knows nothing of sex or birth, is competent to stand trial for the baby's murder. While searching for the answer that her supervisors want, Dr. Livingston finds herself inevitably drawn into searching for the truth about the baby's conception and death. Despite the lack of coo... (Full plot summary below)
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When a dead newborn is found wrapped in bloody sheets in a wastebasket in the bedroom of a young novitiate, psychiatrist Martha Livingston is called in to determine if the seemingly innocent novice, who knows nothing of sex or birth, is competent to stand trial for the baby's murder. While searching for the answer that her supervisors want, Dr. Livingston finds herself inevitably drawn into searching for the truth about the baby's conception and death. Despite the lack of cooperation that she receives from her own organization and the church itself, she eventually discovers more than she may have bargained for.
Leave your thoughts about Agnes of God.
| Miami HeraldBill CosfordThough the plot has some annoying holes, the dialogue and the performances are excellent. |
| Orlando SentinelJay BoyarThe movie contains Jane Fonda's first big-screen appearance since On Golden Pond (1981); if she doesn't quite find a character in Martha, she is nonetheless riveting. Anne Bancroft, too, is impressive. Finally, though, 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. |
| TIME MagazineRichard CorlissAll three stars do smart, honorable work. |
| New York TimesJanet MaslinThe material itself, thoroughly unsurprising on the stage, is if anything even more so on the screen. |
| Washington PostPaul AttanasioAgnes of God offers little besides its jury-rigged suspense. Oh, there are oodles of cigarette jokes -- Livingston is a chain smoker, Mother Miriam a reformed one -- till you wonder why the acknowledgment to Benson & Hedges in the closing credits didn't come above the title. |
| The Associated PressBob ThomasSplendidly shot by Sven Nykvist and with excellent performances, it's an agreeable puzzle which doesn't, thank heaven, come up with a solution to the meaning of life. |
| NewsweekDavid AnsenWhat`s lacking is a clear conception on Jewison`s part as to what this film is about. |
| EmanuelLevy.ComEmanuel LevyHysterical, pseudo-religious melodrama that's too verbose and stagey for the big scren, though the acting, especially Bancroft and Tily, is good. |
| Chicago ReaderDave KehrDespite all the anguished huffing and puffing, there isn't a single authentic moment in it, and all you're left with in the end is the fading memory of two overscaled, Oscar-bait performances. |
| Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasWhile Agnes of God has been considerably opened up, it is actually muddled in its transfer from stage to screen. |