Vaginal bleeding plays a potent supporting role in Alex Thompson’s “Saint Frances,” unsurprising in a movie this deeply invested in the everyday joys and agonies of being a woman.
Covering one difficult, transformative summer in the life of a dissatisfied waitress named Bridget (played by the film’s writer, Kelly O’Sullivan), the movie gently queries our assumptions about what constitutes female success. At 34, Bridget worries that time is running out on finding a career, landing a life partner and, especially, having children. She’s not sure she wants these things, she just knows she’s expected to want them. Her parents hint darkly about her aging uterus, and her younger, more relaxed lover (Max Lipchitz) wonders why she refuses to define their connection as a relationship.
Then, almost simultaneously, she makes a momentous life decision and is hired by a mixed-race lesbian couple (Charin Alvarez and Lily Mojekwu) as a nanny to Frances (Ramona Edith-Williams), their precocious six-year-old. Initially a rather inept caregiver, Bridget gradually warms to her lively charge and her stressed-out employers. More important, she begins to make peace with herself.
With a warm heart and a nonjudgmental mind, “Saint Frances” weaves abortion, same-sex parenting and postpartum depression into a narrative bursting with positivity and acceptance. Some scenes can feel forced and even a little hectoring (as when a breastfeeding mother is verbally attacked in a public park). Others, though, are so modestly insightful — and the performers so appealingly natural — that we forgive the occasional heavy hand. Bridget’s bond with the family feels organic and restorative, the movie making the argument that family is wherever you find it. And if Bridget still lacks direction, it could be because she no longer needs one.
Saint Frances
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
