This is yet another charmer albeit offbeat from France. Young Sophie Quinton has lived virtually all her life in a convent where, with the exception of Miou-Miou all the nuns are of pensionable age. Avril (Quinton) is still a novice and the main thrust of the movie takes place outside the convent during a sort of pre-final vows sabbatical in which for the first time in her life she experiences secular life. Along the way she discovers that 1) she has a twin brother and 2) he's gay and if that weren't enough she falls in with a young man who accompanies here more or less throughout the entire sabbatical and hardly surprisingly begins to fall for her as a person. I'm glad to say that the film does the Catholic church no favors and limns a portrait of a Mother Superior so unhinged and violent (she thinks nothing of throwing temper tantrums in chapel and even less of stabbing Avril) that an apter description would be Mother INferior. Sophie Quinton is a revelation as Avril hitting all the right notes on both her exterior and interior journey and I recommend this one without reservation.
Review of Avril
