There Be Dragons (2011)

Since I saw the trailer for the film months ago, I was curious as to how it would turn out. I'm the kind of moviegoer who would not give a movie that is generally panned by critics a chance, but it's a good thing that I didn't look at the reviews first.

You have to be a certain type of person to watch this film. With my complex relationship with the Church and The Work, I somehow managed to fall under that category. And honestly, I was not disappointed. Perhaps my expecatations for director Roland Joffe were reasonable.

Of course there is a bias here. While it is not a biopic of St. Josemaria Escriva, in the end it is still about him. Nothing Da Vinci Code-ish here, though the mortification scene is still pretty disturbing.

Again, I am avoiding a formal review. It just has to be said that a movie starring two actors I remember from their fairy tale films--Charlie Cox, who was in Stardust, is Josemaria, and Dougray Scott, who was the prince in Ever After, is Robert--as well as a model (Lily Cole), a Bond girl (Olga Kurylenko) and a former drug addict (Wes Bentley) is bound to be interesting. But I have to admit that my favorite scenes are the ones with Rodrigo Santoro. Girl can't help it.