THE HOLY GIRL (LA NIÑA SANTA)

THE HOLY GIRL, or LA NIÑA SANTA, is a movie from Argentina that’s informally subtitled “The Temptation of Good – And the Evil It Causes.” This subtitle gives away the movie’s secular humanist intention, though the movie itself does not overtly attack Christianity in a way that’s very clear. Instead, the movie depicts a set of characters that are lost and helpless in the face of their sin.

In the story, a teenage girl named Amalia lives with her divorced mother, Helena, and her uncle, Freddy, in the run-down hotel that her family owns and runs. After choir rehearsals, Amalia gathers with her best friend, Josefina, in their church to get instruction in Christian vocation with other girls. The lives of these girls and their families intersect with those of a group of visiting ear, nose and throat doctors staying in the hotel for a medical convention.

One day, a balding, middle-aged, married doctor named Jano presses himself sexually against Amalia’s buttocks in a crowd watching a man play a theremin. A theremin is a kind of musical synthesizer that is played by waving one’s hands through an electronic field. Later, when she discovers that Dr. Jano is attending the convention, Amalia finds herself drawn to him and secretly spies on him without him always noticing. Jano does notice Amalia’s mother, Helena, however, and Helena notices him. Helena enjoys Jano’s attentions, but his marriage prevents them from acting on their burning lust to the point of sex (they eventually share a couple kisses but that’s it).

Meanwhile, Amalia confides in Josefina about her own lust for Dr. Jano. Apparently (though this is not clear), Amalia thinks her love can save Jano from sin somehow. Eventually, this whole situation sets off a chain reaction of imminent social catastrophe, but the movie stops short of revealing what happens when Dr. Jano’s immorality is exposed to the whole world.

After all this buildup, the anti-climactic ending to THE HOLY GIRL is disappointing. The last scene just shows Amalia and Josefina giggling in the hotel swimming pool while the other characters wait in the hotel just before Dr. Jano’s sins are about to be exposed.

The intentions of the director, Lucrecia Martel, whether humanist or not, are not clear in the movie, even after reading her own statements about them. In fact, the movie’s informal subtitle (“The Temptation of Good – And the Evil It Causes”) seems to be carried out in such a subtle way that it’s virtually undetectable. The only person who really talks about doing good is Amalia’s young Christian vocation teacher at her church. Amalia and her friend Josefina don’t seem to take the teacher seriously, and the movie doesn’t seem to take her seriously either.

Thus, the movie’s Christian references ultimately appear to be pointless. They’re just part of the Argentina society in which the characters move. Clearly, however, Dr. Jano feels guilty about his lust for Amalia and Amalia’s mother. He is also clearly fearful about his sexual harassment of Amalia being exposed. In fact, it is Josefina’s outraged mother, a minor character, who wants to expose Dr. Jano’s sexual harassment of Amalia when the mother finally hears about it from Josefina. If anything, the movie shows that, if you want to cheat on your wife, or seduce an underage teenage girl, you better accept the fact that you probably will be found out eventually. So, if you don’t want to suffer the consequences of being discovered, don’t do these things. This message does have some positive moral implications, but most viewers might not get any message out of watching this movie.

On the other hand, the movie may be saying that, if only Dr. Jano could escape his middle-class, Christian guilt, he and Helena could enjoy a happy, loving extra-marital affair. It is also interesting to note that Amalia, the teenage protagonist in the story, not only is seduced by Dr. Jano’s perverted attention, she is also seduced by the attention of her friend Josefina, who mocks their Christian teacher and with whom Amalia eventually shares a lesbian kiss.

All in all, therefore, THE HOLY GIRL is an unholy mess with an unclear premise. There are no explicit, graphic sex scenes in THE HOLY GIRL, but it contains adult sexual themes and scenes of perverse lust. The movie also contains brief full male nudity in a non-sexual scene, some petting between the teenage protagonist’s friend and a teenage boy, and a passionate homosexual kiss between the two teenage girls.