‘Thérèse’ Movie Invites Exploration Of Saint’s Life

JANE WILSON, Special Contributor

Published: October 28, 2004

“Thérèse,” the life story of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, directed by Leonardo Defilippis, is a well-intentioned film but is ultimately disappointing in its portrayal of the young woman’s life.

Thérèse Martin lived in France in the late part of the 19th century, an overindulged youngest child of a happy family that was devoted to each other and to the Catholic Church. Her mother died when Thérèse was only four, and she was raised by her father and her four older sisters. Thérèse was especially close to her sister Pauline, and when Pauline decided to enter the Carmelite order, nine-year-old Thérèse was taken by a mysterious illness, characterized by delirium and fever. She was suddenly cured after praying to the Virgin Mary. Thérèse decided soon after that she, too, wanted to become a nun, and she was accepted at the Lisieux Carmel at the young age of fifteen.

St. Thérèse is best known for her idea of serving God in a “little way,” accepting her smallness and abandoning her will to the Lord. Her autobiography, “Story of a Soul,” which explained her doctrine of love and how she was called to serve God, was published a year after her death. She was canonized in 1925, and is known as “The Little Flower.” Her life has served as an inspiration to many, including Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who took her name as a tribute.

To its credit, the film depicts Catholic values being promoted by a strong family environment. It also paints a positive portrait of Religious vocation; Thérèse and her four sisters all become nuns and happily live their lives in service of Christ.

However, the film presents what should be a very interesting story in an oversimplified, stiff manner. The actors, most specifically Lindsay Younce as Thérèse and Defilippis as her father, Louis, do as well as they can within the confines of the script, but the dialogue is often stilted and the action relies too heavily on long pauses to convey drama.

The editing is repetitive, with shots of the sky punctuating each change of scene: the moon at night, the sunset over the mountains, clouds rolling across the sky, church steeples against the sky. These shots are evidently supposed to suggest the presence of a heavenly aspect to Thérèse’s story, but the effect could have been rendered with less monotony and more subtlety.

This lack of subtlety is also painfully evident in the scenes in which Thérèse experiences her religious epiphanies. Each spiritual experience, such as when Thérèse awakes from her illness and the Christmas Eve when she decides to dedicate her life to others, is rendered by a shot of a glowing statue of the Virgin and Thérèse bursting into tears.

The action becomes a little livelier once Thérèse enters the convent, tries to adjust to her new life and form bonds with the other nuns. Some welcome light scenes come from the relationship between the young novice and Sister Augustine, played by Samantha Kramer. The two share an interesting rapport, as the exasperated older nun tries to teach Thérèse how to perform her chores. Augustine is finally won over by the determination of the young nun to become friends, no matter how unpleasant the older woman tries to be.

Although the idea of a small soul serving God through ordinary, everyday works is a very appealing one, the film takes the idea of worshipping God with the heart of a child too literally. We rarely see Thérèse serving others in any meaningful way. Instead, in the film, the idea of becoming a nun for Thérèse seems too connected to the idea of an eternal childhood. In the convent she is reunited with her sisters (three of them belong to the Lisieux Carmel), and she also becomes the youngest in a larger sisterhood. She never has to take adult responsibility; she only has to perform her chores. Oddly, we see less of her Religious life, prayers and devotion after she has entered the convent, and she displays little spiritual growth.

“Thérèse” is the story of one of the most beloved Catholic figures of our time, and unfortunately, the film does not effectively portray what was unique about St. Thérèse. However, seeing the film made me interested in finding out more about the woman who inspired it, and that is not at all a bad thing.