Alex Thompson’s ‘Saint Frances’ was such a welcome treat. I did not know much – or anything – about the film before getting into it, and in the beginning, I didn’t know if I wanted to see a movie about a nanny.  But of course, the film is much more than that. Based on her screenplay and starring Kelly O’Sullivan, this is one of those films wherein you feel like you are getting to know the character, and right after you see the film, Bridget feels like a friend. You may have disagreed with some of her choices in life – indeed, some of them even exasperated you, but you also have grown to love her, and accept her for who she is. This is also because of O’Sullivan’s fantastic performance – she looks like a more sedated Amy Schumer but has the same twinkle in her eye. She is relatable because she is one of us – at what point have we really figured out life? Everyday everyone struggles looking for where we fit in the world.

Who she is a thirty four year old woman who is starting to see all her contemporaries already starting families. But she is still a server, and she is pondering this because at one point, her friends thought she was the next Sylvia Plath. She starts working for a lesbian couple for the summer as a nanny for a six year old and a newborn and there she learns more about what she can accept about herself and what society ‘expects’ of all of us.

Blood seems to be a recurring theme in the film, though, and if you are queasy about that sort of thing, be fore warned. But the film is a delight, and a bright light in the darkness of our world right now.