by MARK SLUTSKY

Lucrecia Martel's La Niña Santa (The Holy Girl) is a hypnotic film that is somehow fascinating and frustrating at the same time. Bearing the subtitle Understanding the Temptation of Good - and the Evil It Causes, the movie presents itself as a kind of modern morality play. But in the end the viewer comes away with more sensory impressions - visual, auditory and otherwise - than any clear moral messages. That's because the filmmaking itself takes precedence over the movie's story, which is always threatening to escape Martel's grasp. Yet, her directing style is singular enough that the vague plotline doesn't really matter.

La Niña Santa is set in the fictionalized Argentinean town of La Ciénaga, which is also the title of Martel's previous (and debut) feature. The putative centre of the story is the adolescent girl Amalia (María Alché), who lives in a rundown hotel with her mother, Helena. The hotel, we understand, has been in their family for ages, and it's now run by Amalia's uncle Freddy, who often sneaks into Alché and Morán's room late at night to chat in the darkness and chastely lie with them in their big bed.

In the week or so that the movie spans, a group of ear, nose and throat specialists are visiting La Ciénaga for a conference at the hotel. One intense-looking doctor named Dr. Jano (Carlos Belloso) presses up against Alché in the square one day, during a theremin (!) street performance. Alché is intrigued by him and makes it her job to save his soul, leading to some complicated results.

That's basically the story, though it's told a lot more elliptically. Something always seems to be happening in La Niña Santa - there are very few quiet moments, and the camera always gives the impression that we're in the middle of a crowd. There are few establishing shots. It's confusing at times but also weirdly exhilarating. Something about Martel's direction seems really new - she has a different way of letting things happen in and around the frame. Her particular way of setting a scene is reason enough to let yourself be frustrated and drawn in by this unusual movie.

La Niña Santa opens Friday, May 27

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