I can't recommend this movie to anyone older than high school age, but French-cinema fans might want to check out the laughably incongruous scene in which Claflin persuades Clarke to watch Of Gods and Men, Xavier Beauvois's harrowing metaphysical drama about a group of martyred Franciscan monks.
But one rainy day, he decides to watch a French DVD—“ Of Gods and Men ,” about Trappist monks living in war-torn Algeria—and the ice between him and Lou begins to melt after he learns she has never seen a subtitled movie before.
Her novel becomes this summer’s splashy euthanasia romance, and if it’s not quite smart, it is the rare blockbuster where our two lovebirds first bond not by trading hesitant glances but by watching the French religion drama “Of Gods and Men.” Props.