PLOT: Amalia and her family live in a run-down hotel, which they own. The hotel is full of doctors attending a convention, and after one of them rubs up against her sexually, Amalia decides to save him by exposing his sin. Only she's sort of stalking him, too.
The Holy Girl seems to have been shot in something you could call Sweatyscope -- there's a film of dampness on everything, and the film consists of claustrophobic spaces and clammy anticipation. The film is about adolescent sexual awakening, power and betrayal, among other things. It never seems honest, but maybe that's the point.
This is the story of Amalia (Maria Alche) and her friend Josefina (Julieta Zylberberg), Catholic teens in the town of La Cienaga who meet after choir to talk with their group about God, God's plan and religious vocations. Along with religious conversation, Amalia and Josefina whisper about sex.
Amalia lives with her mother (Mercedes Moran) and uncle in the hotel her family owns. The hotel is falling apart, but it's obvious that it used to be posh.
A group of doctors comes to a convention in the hotel. Specifically, these are ear, nose and throat doctors, which one discovers after many a close-up of ears and ear canals and whatnot. Writer/director Lucrecia Martel uses her camera like a paintbrush and is very fond of silence and big close-ups; cool, sure, but a bit showy after a while.
One day, Amalia stops outside a shop to watch a man play a theremin, the bizarre musical instrument often called upon for the creepy music required in horror movies (and it's the 'oooweeeooo' part in the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations, of course).
Speaking of creepy, as Amalia stands there, a middle-aged man rubs up against her in a sexual fashion.
The man turns out to be one of the doctors from the convention, and a man to whom Amalia's mother is attracted. Amalia is also attracted to the doctor, but she sort of attempts to deny those feelings by believing herself to be saving him from his sin. She unwittingly engineers the collapse of his world. We're not sure why one is supposed to care.
The Holy Girl concerns itself with the embroidery and deception involved in organized religion and the various other social structures arranged to keep order. So it's depressing. Visually, the film is arresting, all mood and intense detail, and watching it is an invitation to enter another world, a dream world. It's engrossing just to look at; too bad one is left with a lingering impression that there's something dishonest at the heart of The Holy Girl.
(This film is rated PG)
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