WHAT TO SEE: What the children saw

Fatima
Harvey Keitel, Stephanie Gil, Goran Visnjic, Sônia Braga, Joaquim de Almeida
100 min • Not Rated

The familiar story of the 1917 appearances of the Virgin Mary to three young shepherd children in Portugal receives a beautiful big-screen treatment in the new 2020 drama Fatima, scheduled for release to theaters everywhere on April 24.

It’s an immensely satisfying film in that it conveys the incredible events and the reported messages from Mary with simplicity and sincerity. The children are portrayed with delightful realism, their families and townspeople believably exhibit various degrees of bewilderment and credulity, and the Virgin radiantly regards her young subjects with obvious deep love and even a little amusement. To the film’s credit, the apparitions and miracles are not given a Hollywood special-effects treatment, which surprisingly makes these scenes that much more moving.

Although Our Lady of Fatima is an approved devotion and has borne great fruit in the lives of many of the faithful, as private revelation there is no obligation for Catholics to believe in the Fatima apparitions or their related messages. In interspersed scenes set in a convent many decades later, Fatima gives voice to the skeptics in the person of an unbelieving journalist who visits Sister Lucia in her cloister to interview her for a book he is writing. The saintly nun answers his objections with grace and cordiality, even if unsatisfyingly in some instances.

Even if one finds the story of Fatima and its “miracle of the sun” too incredible to accept, the historical record is clear: something wonderful happened here, witnessed not only by three shepherd children but also by tens of thousands of onlookers, and something wonderful continues to happen in the hearts and lives of those who respond positively to the Virgin of Fatima’s call — to turn away from sin, to devote oneself to her Immaculate Heart, and to pray the rosary for peace in the world and the salvation of souls.

Make the effort to take your family to see this movie when it comes to your local theater this Easter season.

GERALD KORSON is a Legatus magazine staff writer.