Hey folks, Harry here... well the droolilicious Miranda Otto seems to have a winner with this film, JULIE WALKING HOME, although it seems we're doomed to only seeing it on the Sundance Channel here in the U.S. of A. Probably due to the spiritual nature and the nudity... too often we Americans seem to prudish to allow those subjects to intermingle. Here ya go...

Even though the lion's share of recent Ain't It Cool News coverage has been devoted to Butt-Numb-a-Thon and the impending release of "The Return of the King," I thought I would write a review of a cool film that is flying below radar but might prove to be of some interest to both international cineastes and fans of Peter Jackson's trilogy.

"Julie Walking Home," directed by veteran Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, is a highly unusual supernatural melodrama that stars Miranda Otto (erstwhile known as Eowyn in the "Lord of the Rings" films) in the titular role of a Canadian woman who must grapple with personal tragedy and the impact it creates on her own jaded observances of spirituality.

When Julie arrives home from a vacation with the kids only to discover the blatant infidelities of her longtime companion, Henry (William Fichtner in another grimace-laden performance), Julie's damnation of his moral fiber is instant and stubborn. Her father, a devout Catholic who has always harbored suspicions of her unmarried lover, has his hands full with a mail-order bride who proves to be equally deserving of such suspicions.

Julie's son Nicholas is struck with cancer as if it were willed upon him by the fragmentation of the family unit. Her father's cryptic mail-order bride reveals how her own cancer was sent into remission with only the touch of a mysterious Russian faith healer named Alexei (Lothaire Bluteau, best known for playing another infamous miracle worker in Denys Arcand's "Jesus of Montreal").

Julie rediscovers her own reliance on faith as she travels to Poland, with her ill son in tow, to meet Alexei. Encountering a welcoming reception from the reclusive but gifted healer, Julie takes a shine to Alexei and invites him to join her in Nova Scotia. He is subsequently led into an unknown world where her affections provide him with a glimpse into the decadent dynamics of secular Canadian living ... but at what price?

Although she has spent the past two decades helming many Hollywood and international co-productions, "Julie Walking Home" is the first film that Agnieszka Holland has shot on location in Poland since the fall of the Communist regime that sent her into exile many years prior.

Inarguably one of the major forces of modern Polish cinema, Holland is known to many as a co-scenarist of Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Three Colors" trilogy. Her new film, with its ponderings on the interconnectedness of faith and circumstance, revisits many of her collaborator's favorite themes and motifs.

The screenplay (written by Holland, Arlene Sarner and Roman Gren) is largely a meditation on the sacrifices required of those who purport to perform the work of the spiritual realm through their own mortal vessels. In this sense, "Julie Walking Home" summons comparisons to current scandals within the Catholic church and may send some devout moviegoers storming for the aisles, given that the film's heroine is an unrepentant former Catholic whose newfound faith is dangerously intertwined with her own lustful desires.

Miranda Otto's performance as Julie will also likely raise the eyebrows of fans of "The Lord of the Rings" with her largely uninhibited (and frequently unclothed) interpretation of a volatile and troubled woman whose sensuality registers as both redemptive and corruptive.

In fact, one of the more unusual and intriguing aspects of "Julie Walking Home" is how Ms. Otto's unsheathed bosoms act as something of a divining rod of the guarded intentions of her fellow characters. In the thrall of her undeniable charms, Henry is revealed to be covetous and possessive of her sexuality. Alexei exhibits his own innocent naivete as he receives her with child-like wonder, but in the context of the film's complicated sense of spiritual responsibility, he wills his own personal disaster as a result.

Although it would be lazy to criticize such a complicated and layered work as being "too ambitious," the most frustrating quality of the movie is its inability to answer or even fully explore many of the prickly questions that it raises.

To the extent that "Julie Walking Home" demands a certain amount of faith from its viewers that the mysteries of its narrative comprise a cohesive moral argument, these challenges eerily resemble similar demands that are placed on those who dutifully worship at the feet of organized religion.

I was fortunate enough to see a 35mm print of "Julie Walking Home" this weekend at the Washington Jewish Film Festival, as the film does not currently have a theatrical distributor. However, it appears that the movie will be airing on the Sundance Channel later this month and I encourage anyone who is interested to take a peek at this unique and off-the-wall effort.