Body & Soul (1993– ) User Reviews

You have to live through this movie

[hemmelmol · 8/10 · 10 May 2005]

Once again, I am disappointed how little people have seen this marvelous film. I think it is because the main character is a nun. And how attractive is that? But aren't you interested about the story of a smart, modern woman, who chooses to flee in a convent? And don't you want to know what happens if she has to leave?

I must say it is the best role I saw Kristin Scott Thomas play ever. You really feel why she makes her decisions. Only by acting, without spelling it out, this movie makes you understand the behaving of several people. And that is real Art.

It's one of the movies you will be thinking of for days. And every time you see Kristin, or hear someone talk about her, you relive the moments this movie showed you.

This is One of My Favorite Mini-Series

[Jalea · 9/10 · 30 September 2008]

This is one of my favorite Mini-Series, because of the storyline, and the acting. Kristen Scott Thomas is excellent and played the role naturally. One would not think that a story of a nun's life could be so dramatically and intelligently portrayed. I have not seen a storyline on the subject so compelling since A Nun's Story (1959) with Audrey Hepburn. Ms. Thomas like Ms. Hepburn, has a very expressive face, and can transmit an array of feelings without speaking.

Body and Soul is a story about the conflicts of duty to one's beliefs, one's family and one's self. Anna (Thomas), after many years of being a nun, has to help her family's floundering business. In the process, she learns some things about herself, and as a result is faced with some decisions. In some cases in stories like this, you can almost guess what will happen next. However, Body and Soul has a few surprises.

If you have not seen this mini-series, it is worth renting or buying.

Worth 500 minutes of your life, and Kristen Scott Thomas is amazing!

[Pugboy75 · 9/10 · 25 October 2021]

I thoroughly enjoyed this mini-series and feel it's as poignant in 2021 as it was when made in 1993. The acting is universally outstanding. Kristen Scott Thomas is simply amazing! She's probably in 490 of the 500 minutes, and she carries every scene deftly and gracefully.

Interestingly, my wife would gives the series a B+, whereas I give it an A-. Some of the characters are one-dimensional, and arguably the plot is straightforward. However, the strength of the performances and the directing outweigh those elements in my opinion. Also, the journey is often more interesting than the destination.

There are few series that so significantly explore many aspects of living a nun's life, which I find compelling and interesting, as well.

Of note, the third episode is slow, but stick with it because the story picks up strongly again in episode four, and stays that way through the finish.

Body & Soul is well worth your consideration, offers a compelling set of characters and story, and presents extremely well long after it's making. You should absolutely give it a go and will likely find much to enjoy.

Excellent!

[Fifi · 10/10 · 26 December 1998]

This is a wonderful showcase for Kristin Scott Thomas' talent -- incroyable! Her Anna Gibson/Sister Gabriel is exquisitely conflicted. Her 1993 Chicago Film Festival win for this film was quite well-deserved. Amanda Redmond is fantastic as Anna's sister-in-law, Lynn, and I adored Madeleine Christie's Sister Godric. Must see!

Habit jokes aside, its about questions & sacrifice for faith

[phlbrq58 · 8/10 · 13 January 2020]

What a wild career K.S. Thomas has had. I found this doing a 'Brit' search of Prime this week. There is a real woman sensibility apparent here. Adult, reasoned, understated yet effective. My mother took me to see The Nuns Story when I was age 6. Rather minimalist for a Catholic preadolescent but sacrifice for the spiritual life is kinda baked into the C cake! Some know of which I speak! 1993 is still early in Brit tv production value fortunes. The cinematography kinda sucks. Choices made can only be for budget constraints. I didn't dig the look. But Scott transcends every screen second. Don't believe me? Please just... I gotta go but more people should see this and not annoy me with clever non habit forming reasoning.

Great British drama

[graceoverpressuretheoneANDonly · 9/10 · 24 June 2022]

This was a superb story of a nun in conflict with her life choices and movement in her nunnery to her transitional departure due to family issues. Kristin Scott Thomas was superb as she ALWAYS is in whatever work she performs. The plot was intricate yet inviting as you moved through the 6 episodes or so of her life and choices. I felt the acting was very good by one and all, the setting interesting and unique and the storyline was really, really good in enticing us to watch more and stirring the desire to "finish" what was started. Pretty outstanding drama as MANY British productions tend to be these days COMPARED with those of Hollywood, USA. I don't know why this is but I continue to find it true.

As good as this series was, the book was better.

[Julie-30 · 5/10 · 20 November 2000]

I've read the book countless times, and the series pales in comparison. I thought that the writers of the teleplay made more changes than were absolutely necessary (why change the family's name, for example?), and that some of the spirit of the book was missing.

I have always regarded this book as the story of a woman who comes of age both spiritually and emotionally. She has to decide what is important to her, and why. In the book, her struggle to make the best decisions for her future is played out more. We see more of her relationship with the other nuns, and we see how her leaving affects them. In the film, the only other nun we really get to see is Sister Dominic.

In the film, her reasons for leaving appeared to be more cut and dry. In the book there is a lot more nuance. I can't not recommend the film, but I can recommend that those who liked it read the book. It's beautiful.

Too long and too trite.

[ww7872-572-188638 · 3/10 · 28 April 2019]

At six and a half hours this was twice as long as it needed to be. It's the story of a nun, conflicted as to whether or not she should leave her order to go home and run the family business or stay inside her cloistered convent. The writer clearly has a bias, as none of the spiritual rewards of the religious life are shown and all the hardships are highlighted. Changing to a teaching order is never suggested.

One would think Thomas's character had been forced to join and held prisoner for 16 years.

It's all quite predictable with heavy hints that she had only joined the convent because she had been sexually repressed and is now "awakening." We even have to see two full frontal nude scenes while she gazes at herself in the mirror as though she hadn't known she had breasts. We're expected to thrill over things like new clothes and a rather plain haircut, and be delighted that she's jumped so quickly from a vow of chastity to casual sex. The only "moral" she retains is a very judgemental attitude about other people's smoking.

Non-habit forming

[Froster54 · 2/10 · 13 September 2012]

Boy, what a surprise this was. Who would have thought that a PBS Masterpiece production with one of the most celebrated of international leading ladies could be such a STINKER. Hackneyed and tedious almost from the get-go, and I stayed with it well past the get-go (in fact, 2 whole hours before I decided to get-going). I mean, one should have been prepared, I suppose, for something wonky when one is asked to accept Kristin Scott Thomas as a contemporary cloistered nun. Was it the (merely hinted it) Lesbian angle in the convent? Was it Thomas's anguished reaction when she stumbles upon a couple bonking in a shed? Was it the prune-faced nun who assaults her upon her return to the convent with the words "God doesn't want you here"? Was it the hunky young factory foreman with whom she allies herself when she decides to save the family textile mill? Now don't misunderstand, it's not that I actually want these questions answered…I was just wondering which WAS it that finally made me give up on this piece of overcooked tripe.