Review: 'Fatima' tells of a well-known miracle, with gorgeous images and a not-too-deep intellectual fervor

Jesus told his disciples (as recalled in the gospel of Matthew), “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” — which is as good a place as any to consider “Fatima,” a by-the-numbers religious drama that delves into the childlike nature of faith.

Based on true events, “Fatima” shows what happens when three children, between the ages of 7 and 10, saw the Virgin Mary appear to them in a field outside their village in Portugal in 1917. The three are told to come back to the same spot, once a month for six months, where Mary (Joana Ribeiro) will deliver her message of peace through prayer on the rosary.

Soon, the village catches wind of the children’s vision, and the kids face a sea of troubles. The oldest girl, Lucia (Stephanie Gil), gets the brunt of it — from her mother, Maria (Lúcia Moniz), and their parish priest, Father Ferreira (Joaquim de Almeida), who think the children are lying; and the mayor, Artur (Goran Visnjic), who fears this peasant “superstition” will undermine the modern, enlightened rule of Portugal’s secular government.

The next month, when the children return to the spot for another message from Mary, a crowd of pilgrims is also waiting. They want the children to pass their prayers — for health, for reassurance, for the return of their loved ones from the Great War — onto the Virgin. Their presence, though, means more hardship for Luca’s father, Antonio (Marco D’Almeida), because the pilgrims trample his hay crop.

Italian director Marco Pontecorvo (whose father, Gillo, directed the 1966 classic “The Battle of Algiers”) does a lovely job capturing the beauty and struggles of rural Portugal, and creating a visual realization of the actual miracle for which Fatima is famous. The script, which Pontecorvo wrote with Valerio D’Annunzio and Barbara Nicolosi, also crystalizes in simple strokes the story’s essential tug-of-war between the jaded, suspicious adults and the truthful, innocent children.

The real missed opportunity in “Fatima” is in the framing story, decades later, as Lucia (played by Sonia Braga), an elderly nun, invites a skeptical theological scholar (Harvey Keitel) to interview her for his next book.Pontecorvo could have used those conversations to probe the mysteries of faith, and add some deeper meaning to the children’s stalwart insistence on having their truth be heard. Instead, Keitel and Braga just add another layer of pieties to a movie that has plenty already.

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‘Fatima’

★★1/2

Available starting Friday, August 28, streaming as a video-on-demand rental on most platforms. Rated PG-13 for some strong violence and disturbing images. Running time: 113 minutes.