Nuns and comedy go hand in hand, for whatever reason, and the latest to pick up the habit is Laurent Tirad's Oh My Goodness!.

After applying for funding to improve their care home, a group of nuns in the picturesque countryside of east France discover that all government funding for the year has, inexplicably, been put into a prize fund for a local cycling race. Determining the quickest route they can to the money, the group decides to enter the competition. The only problem with their plan is that none of them can cycle.

The real conflict emerges when a group of rival nuns, who have excellent biking experience after transitioning to the more eco-friendly transport method, rock up to collect the money for their own charitable cause: rehabilitating ex-convicts. In line with the ethos of their order, the sisters must share their accommodation and food, leading to several silly sabotage attempts and nun-ly competitiveness.

Oh My Goodness! (Juste Ciel!) (2022) © Les Films sur Mesure

Mother Véronique (Valérie Bonneton) is particularly irked by their arrival; their leader is her lifelong nemesis. The performances of the two are incredibly compelling, and it's not difficult to believe their established vitriol. Bonneton's depiction of Véronique's increasing desperation and fury is a highlight of the film, as is her equally extreme adoration for the Pope. A chick-flick-esque montage daydream, where she imagines how well the two would get on, is an inspired addition.

The cartoonish nature of some moments, from the nuns leaning back at a 45-degree angle from the force of Véronique's yells to Sister Bernadette (Claire Nadeau), who has taken a vow of silence, having to write each of her expressions—including ‘ow', after she falls off a cliff—on a whiteboard, add a lot to the success of the film. It refuses to take itself seriously at all, which works for the most part. However, the refusal to ever go beyond lightheartedness while still bringing in heavier themes and character development is a little disappointing.

Gwendoline (Louise Malek), a trainee at the nunnery, appears completely out of place from the off. She uses her smartphone, seems unaware of the bare basics of the Bible, and doesn't have all that much interest in religion in general. It's later revealed that this is a kind of Hail Mary for her, if you'll pardon the pun. Her life has been full of rejections, beginning with her mother swapping her out for a prettier baby at the hospital. Being a nun is the latest in a long series of attempts to find her place in the world. It's a potentially interesting story, but one that falls by the wayside in the second half of the film. Although Gwendoline's story is not central to the plot, the half-hearted exploration of her character is frustrating. It feels like the writers initially planned for her to be more integral to the narrative, but changed their minds before the final cut. The hints of backstory work well in other cases, short vignettes providing unexpected flashbacks of the nuns' former lives, but the execution is mangled here.

While this is an entertaining film, with enough gags to keep you interested in the ridiculous plot, but one that benefits from not being inspected too closely. There's not much going on below the surface, although certain details suggest that a more beefed-up story was lost on the cutting room floor. It's a low-stakes, charmingly silly film, and one that provides genuinely good laughs. If nothing else, it's a wonderful advertisement for the French countryside.