[S]een alongside Godard's other films, Hail Mary isn't that shocking. It's a film of great sensitivity and yearning[.]

Hail Mary is limpid, serene, and, for all the pubic hair on display, glowingly chaste.

This much is certain: The controversy will probably sell a lot more tickets than is warranted by the comparatively solemn, unsensational nature of the film itself.

Every scene is a test -- of belief, plausibility, modern faithlessness. And every image (shot by Jean-Bernard Menoud and Jacques Firmann) is astonishingly beautiful. Hail Mary reaffirms Godard’s perfect visual pitch.