It's 1917 Fátima, Portugal. The government is a progressive democracy and war is taking the lives of the town's young men. A heavenly apparition appears before three young kids and they are told to return each month. Father Ferreira (Joaquim de Almeida) is concerned and the mayor Arturo (Goran Visnjic) is desperate to get them to recant. The oldest child, Lucia, has her mother who is struggling with her belief and her oldest son away at war. In modern times, Professor Nichols (Harvey Keitel) is writing a book about the incident and interviews Lucia who is a nun in a convent. I never considered Fatima as a dramatic event. I assumed that everybody accepted the kids' visions. I guess that I never thought about it too deeply. With war, religion, and politics all mixed together, the drama should have been more apparent to me. That and the personal family trauma is the best part of the movie. The drama comes from Lucia resisting the testing of her faith. That's the heart of everything. The more devoted would want some digging into the three secrets. I don't know that it matters to the themes of the movie. It's academic rather than touching the emotions of the drama. I would cut back on the modern interview. It could bookend the movie but it really doesn't add that much. It's about the kids and their faith.

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