OVP: Agnes of God (1985)

Film: Agnes of God (1985)

Stars: Jane Fonda, Anne Bancroft, Meg Tilly

Director: Norman Jewison

Oscar History: 3 nominations (Best Actress-Anne Bancroft, Supporting Actress-Meg Tilly, Score)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

We are continuing on our look at the category of Best Supporting Actress with a turn from the mid-1980's, and one that has a bit of history behind it.  Meg Tilly is not an actress we talk a lot about today, but she is part of a really good trivia question-Tilly and her older sister Jennifer are one of only three pairs of sisters to be nominated for acting Oscars, and they are the only ones to have been nominated without competing against each other (to date).  Infamously Joan Fontaine beat Olivia de Havilland at the 1941 Academy Awards, and (less infamously, since unlike Joan & Olivia they were lifelong friends), Lynn & Vanessa Redgrave both lost to Elizabeth Taylor at the 1966 Oscars.  While Jennifer would score a surprise nomination for 1994's Bullets Over Broadway, her younger sister won her nomination a decade earlier, for a more conventional role (by Oscar standards) in the filmed adaptation of the play Agnes of God.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie centers around three women.  The first, whom we meet in the opening scenes, is Sister Agnes (Tilly), a novice at a conservative nunnery who is found bleeding profusely after giving birth to a now stillborn baby.  It is unclear if Sister Agnes has killed her baby (or if she has miscarried), and so a court-appointed psychiatrist named Martha (Fonda) is assigned to investigate the case, under the watchful eye of Mother Miriam (Bancroft) who distrusts Martha & seemingly wants to protect Agnes.  This sets off a strange series of events, as the film encounters conversations about faith (Martha is a former believer, Agnes & Miriam are deeply entrenched in the church, frequently at the cost of Agnes's wellbeing, as she punishes herself through starvation & for getting her period).  We understand as the movie continues that it's likely that Agnes was raped, but after years of mental abuse by her mother didn't understand this & thought that it might be God who had had sex with her.  She is found not guilty (due to an insanity defense), and is left in the convent, the audience never knowing exactly who raped her or what Mother Miriam's true contribution to the death of the child is.

If that plot description feels a little sloppy, it's because this movie is pretty sloppy.  It feels like for the bulk of the movie that the writers don't have an answer as to why Agnes keeps exhibiting stigmata (seemingly out-of-nowhere), and who actually is the father of her baby.  It also doesn't feel like they (or Bancroft) know whether or not Mother Miriam intended to provide the tools for Agnes to kill either herself or the child, though Bancroft's guilt toward the end makes me believe that she knew there was a chance this mentally ill woman would kill her baby.

As a result, the film's Oscar nominations feel cheap.  Tilly's work is routine-she's asked to be beautiful & innocent, but she doesn't bring enough perspective to her work for my taste, and this feels like a flat creation.  The same can be said for Bancroft, who really gets a goose egg in her final Oscar-nominated role, particularly considering Bancroft had done very well with interpreting stage work to the screen before.  She always feels like she's showing her cards in this performance, as if she forgot "oh crap, this scene I'm supposed to act guilty."  Fonda, the only one of the three without an Oscar nomination, has the least showy role, but also doesn't find much to do here.  The only nomination that feels somewhat earned is Georges Delerue's chilling (but forgettable) score, giving the film an atmosphere that no one else seems able to match.