The Holy Girl
Prepare to be carried away into the dreamlike world ofThe Holy Girl, Lucrecia Martel's sultry mood piece. In a dowdy hotel in Argentina, a small-scale morality play is unfolding:  devout teenager Amalia (Maria Alche) determines to save the soul of the middle-aged man who inappropriately rubbed up against her in the street. He's a doctor (Carlos Belloso) visiting town for a conference, staying at the same hotel where Amalia lives with her mother (Mercedes Moran). It gets complicated when Amalia's mother makes the doctor's acquaintance and finds herself attracted to him--without knowing about his dark little secret. Martel, whose first feature was the remarkableLa Cienaga, creates a world both spiritual and sensual for this story, aided by the central performance of Maria Alche, whose religious devotion is at war with her Lolita looks. The overall effect is like the hotel's pool room, a heady feeling of humid atmosphere but with a lucid argument at its core. This is a fascinating film.--Robert Horton