Ida (3 stars out of 4)

Ida's Agata Trzebuchowska has the kind of face that pulls you in. Her pupils are dark and seem to take up her entire eye. The film makes a point to address the dimple she has in her chin and the two other ones that appear in her cheeks when she smiles. In Ida she is shown almost always in her character's nun habit and filmed in full-frame black-and-white. She is given the appearance of a classic film star. When she is on-screen it is impossible to look anywhere else. Pawel Pawlikowski's latest film Ida uses both the classic beauty of Trzebuchowska and gorgeous cinematography to create a haunting and bleak story about dealing with the past and what it truly means to devote your future.

Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska) is a novitiate nun in 1960s Poland who is a week away from taking her vows to the Church. She is informed by her Mother Superior (Halina Skoczynska) that she has only one living relative, her aunt Wanda (Agata Kulesza). Anna is told that she must go out and meet with Wanda before she takes her vows. Wanda is former judge who uses sex and alcohol to make it through the day. When she isn't too drunk to communicate, she tells Anna about how important her job as a judge was. She stresses that she sent several people to their deaths. With every drink, it is hard to tell if this is a fact that prides Wanda or haunts her. Eventually Wanda starts informing Anna about her past. It turns out Anna's real name is Ida and she was born into a Jewish family and that her family has died during the Holocaust. Anna/Ida asks if she can visit their graves before she returns to the convent. This leads Anna/Ida and Wanda on a trip to uncover harsh stories from both of their pasts.

Pawlikowski takes some interesting stylistic choices with Ida. The first is the fact that it is filmed in black-and-white using digital cameras. Black-and-white digital photography has seen a resurgence lately in independent cinema (last year's Frances Ha is a recent example)  partly because it looks old and is considerably cheaper to process than color digital film. In Ida, the choice seems to be artistically driven. If it weren't for the cleanliness of the digital photography, it would be easy to think this was a film from the 1960s. It is as if you have walked into a theater playing a revival film. The images Pawlikowski and cinematographers Ryszard Lenczewski and Lukasz Zal are able to capture are simply stunning. If anyone believes that independent digital photography can't look cinematic and jaw-dropping, Ida is a prime example of why they are wrong.

There are many stretches in Ida where very little happens. The opening scenes that take place in the convent are especially sparse. Even when Anna/Ida ventures away, it is still presented as bleak and uncomfortably plain. All music is presented diegeticly, that is the only music is from objects that are playing them on screen. The absence of a musical score is especially unsettling. We have grown so accustomed to having a musical score to compliment such beautiful imagery or big moments. When Anna/Ida and Wanda are delivered powerful news about the past of their families and there is no sound but the wind, it hits harder than any music could.

Ida is essentially a two-person story with Anna/Ida and Wanda travelling from place to place finding elements of their past. As a result, the brunt of the emotional work is depending on the two actors. Trzebuchowska plays her character as restrained as to be expected. She still gives a captivating performance. When something as small as removing her headpiece is a deep and powerful moment, that reflects impressively on both the production and the performance. Kulesza's Wanda is left to be the more vocal and flashy character. Her alcoholism and romantic quests are mostly downplayed. Kulesza does a great job of accenting each of Wanda's movements with the sadness that is below the surface.

There are a few story choices in Ida that drag it below the high standard it tries to emulate. Wanda spends a too much time telling Anna/Ida about her religious beliefs and sneaking in jabs at the Church. While it is never offensive, it just seems out of place in some scenes and becomes repetitive. We easily understand that Wanda doesn't believe in religion and doesn't understand how someone would give up so much of themselves for the Church. Her repetitive harshness to Anna/Ida causes us to not look on Wanda quite so favorably. The addition of a handsome hitchhiker Feliks (Adam Szyszkowski) is also somewhat disappointing. The cutesy back-and-forth between Anna/Ida and Feliks  is seemingly out-of-place in such a bleak and challenging film. While it does move the story along a bit thematically, it doesn't seem to do journey Anna/Ida takes the justice it deserves.

While it is not necessarily a fun jaunt, the beauty of Ida lies in the perfect presentation and the chilling performances. It is the kind of movie that will stay with you for days after you see it. It is a great diversion from the upcoming summer movie season. When every movie seems to go bigger and louder, Ida pulls you in with nothing but silence and a silent beautiful woman fully covered.