An Ode to the Unanswered Questions in "Agnes of God" | Features | Roger Ebert

"It happens again and again throughout the film, every time I watch, every time Meg Tilly is on screen as the titular Agnes. In one scene, she is being hypnotized, and though her eyes are closed tears still seep out-one glistens on her lashes like a gemstone-and I know with a knowledge that doesn't deal in words but rather in feeling that what I am seeing is the truth, the truth of a woman's experience."

"Uneducated and dreamy, Agnes can be read either as a saint or a fool depending on what side of the bed you woke up on this morning. The young woman exists in the middle ground between reality and magic, a sacred liminal space difficult to describe using failsafe words, and yet Tilly allows us to feel it through Agnes with a preternatural clarity."

Norman Jewison's 1985 film Agnes of God generates a stunned, visceral response centered on Meg Tilly's portrayal of Agnes. Agnes is not an archetype of womanhood but a singular, liminal figure positioned between reality and magic. The character's ambiguity allows readings as saint or fool while maintaining an internal certainty rooted in feeling. Tilly conveys Agnes's inner life through facial affects, body language, and nonverbal rhythms rather than linear exposition. Recollections shift mid-telling, and the narrative privileges felt experience over chronological facts. The film leaves viewers carrying Agnes's breath, words, and emotions, honoring interior truth.

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