The New Boy review – Cate Blanchett’s boozy nun indulges possible second coming in woozy wartime saga

over 2 years in The guardian

Blanchett in imperious zealot mode is hard to resist, but Warwick Thornton’s story of orphans and evangelists in the 40s outback never quite fulfils its promiseCate Blanchett gives it the full wimple as cantankerous alcoholic nun Sister Eileen in Warwick Thornton’s woozily mystical and slightly unfocused drama set in a remote outback Catholic orphanage in 1940s wartime Australia - and really only a period setting would give us the spectacle of Blanchett in the complete picturesque nun outfit, now a rarity in the modern age.Blanchett brings to it a fierce authority born of repressed emotion in the time honoured nuns-on-film manner - although she can’t match Kathleen Byron’s troubled nun in Powell and Pressburger’s Black Narcissus. Continue reading...

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