Sister Smile movie review from modmove

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Sister Smile
Sister Smile tells the story of Jeanine Deckers who back in 1963 had a huge international hit with the song Dominique. The story becomes even more interesting when you discover that she did it under an alias, Sister Smile and at that time she was actually an anonymous nun who lived in a convent in Belgium. She also became known under the moniker, The Singing Nun. Her life was immortalized in 1966 by a film of that same name starring Debbie Reynolds, made into an off Broadway play and even spoofed in an American TV series starring Sally Fields.

This movie version of the tale of one of histories ultimate one-hit wonders reads like a romance novel but her real live was anything but romantic. She left the convent to pursue a musical career and through bad management and more than a little naiveté on her part never had any real success with a musical career. She was hounded by her countries tax department for unpaid taxes, never had any chart success other than that one song and ultimately committed suicide with her female partner of ten years.

The film takes great liberties with the actual timeline of her life, so it condenses her life into a rather quickly told tale. Deckers is portrayed as a very headstrong girl with a difficult home life and an undefined sexuality. The film is very European in its feel and the Belgian actress; Cécile de France does a fine job as the ill-fated singer.

Even though it’s a tragic tale at its core, the film focuses more on Deckers' world-wind success with Dominique and her early life. Even her suicide is presented in a very flowery way. With this approach the film is less dour and intends to be more entertaining. However this method still has the effect of making you go home afterwards and doing some research on your own to find out what really happened.
Rob Hudson


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