★★☆☆☆
For Cate Blanchett, the question was always going to be, “How to follow Lydia Tár?” What could she possibly do on screen after creating, in the Oscar-nominated Tár, a career-defining character of complexity, control and subterranean feeling? The only direction left, apparently, was over the top, which is where she goes here, in this Second World War-era drama that foregrounds Blanchett as an emotionally demonstrative, wildly energetic and semi-alcoholic nun (yup) called Sister Eileen.
When we first meet her, taking charge of a nameless Aboriginal child (the titular new boy, played by Aswan Reid) in a rural Australian orphanage, Sister Eileen is horrified by the casual brutality of a supervising policeman. She immediately springs forward and, habit flying madly, holds up her fists