Oh My Goodness! (Juste ciel!)
Directed by Laurent Tirard
Written by Cécile Larripa and Philippe Pinel
Starring Valérie Bonneton, Camille Chamoux, Claire Nadeau, Guilaine Londez
Rating to be confirmed
Runtime: 86 minutes
In UK theatres March 14

by Katharine Mussellam, Staff Writer

Shopping for calendars as a kid, I remember coming across one entitled Nuns Having Fun. The photo on its cover depicted a group of smiling sisters as they pedalled on their bicycles, veils flowing in the breeze. I recalled this image while watching Laurent Tirard’s latest feature, Oh My Goodness!, which also portrays nuns who break the mold. They may not always be having fun, but there’s plenty of scenes of the sisters getting on their bikes and riding.

When the sisters of the convent of St. Benedict pay a visit to a local old folks’ home and see it could use some upgrades, they set out on a mission to make that happen. The sisters find out that the funding isn’t currently available, but they could get the money they seek if they win an upcoming bicycle race with a grand prize of €25,000. And so, they set to work training to become champion racers, even though some of them have never ridden a bike before. They aren’t doing this purely out of the goodness of their hearts, however. When their Father Abbot promises Mother Véronique (Valérie Bonneton) a trip to Rome if she is successful in winning the money for her project, she fantasizes about becoming BFFs with the Pope himself. Beating out her childhood nemesis, the now Mother Véronique (Sidse Babett Knudsen) wouldn’t hurt, either.

While Mother Véronique is a stickler for rules in the convent and Sister Augustine (Camille Chamoux) loves to read the Bible, this rag-tag group are not as virtuous as you might expect pious nuns to be. They’ve all had worldly experience before they joined the convent, and they each have their petty jealousies, rivalries, and desires. Nun-in-training Gwendoline (Louise Malek) in particular has quite a mouth on her and is unafraid of speaking her mind. The other sisters are also willing to engage in underhanded compliments and passive-aggressive prayers in pursuit of their goals. The first act of the film is particularly strong in developing this cast of characters, who each have their own voice – even Sister Bernadette (Claire Nadeau) who has taken a vow of silence – and quirky, decidedly un-nun-like backstories as outcasts and troublemakers. They’re a fun cast of characters and even in their zaniness are fairly well-rounded, at least as much as characters in a comedy such as this can be. It is a strength in the writing that this is achieved even as the film maintains a generally unserious tone.

Your mileage may vary, however, depending on how you feel about watching the sisters engaging in quasi-mean-girl machinations against a rival convent and exclaiming Jesus’ name whenever a frustrating or surprising situation arises. There were moments where I found their actions a bit much, but mostly I was happy to follow their trials and tribulations. If you enjoyed the intrigues and backstabbing of Conclave (dir. Edward Berger, 2024), you might find yourself at home with these slightly naughty nuns.

A plot point late in the film comes off at first as incongruous with what led up to that decisive moment, given the brashness of the characters, but it all mostly comes together at the end as a story of friendship. Fortunately, the film manages to portray the sense of community between the characters without veering too far into sappiness. An entertaining romp, Oh My Goodness! is worth the ride for those in need of a laugh right now.

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