Agnes of God is an "opened up" adaptation of the minimalist stage play by John Pielmeier . Meg Tilly plays a young nun who secretly gives birth to a baby; the child's body is later found strangled to death. Court-appointed psychiatrist Jane Fonda is sent to the convent to investigate, a task made difficult by the weathervane behavior of mother superior Anne Bancroft . To draw out Tilly, who remembers nothing of the birth, Fonda suggests that hypnosis is called for. Playwright Pielmeier poses many questions—is Tilly a pure-and-simple murderess, or was there something "divine" in her act?—but offers frustratingly few answers. The evocative photography is by longtime Ingmar Bergman associate Sven Nykvist . — Hal Erickson