Gently funny and frequently profound, Giuseppe Piccioni's Not Of This World takes a potentially sentimental premise and wrings from it a surprising amount of resonance. Handed an abandoned baby in a park, a nun (Margherita Buy), instead of simply reporting it to the authorities or her Mother Superior, decides to seek out the child's parents herself. The baby arrives at an odd time in Buy's life: She is about to recite her final vows, and the child reminds her of everything she'll soon give up. Buy's quest becomes more personal than practical, as she begins to wonder if life in the convent is right for her even while her belief in her calling remains strong. Further complicating matters, the search leads her not only to the baby's young unwed mother (Carolina Freschi), but to a depressed, middle-aged businessman (Silvio Orlando, a spitting image of Peter Sellers), whose perpetual sadness starts to abate once he realizes that he may be the foundling's unlikely father. Not Of This World addresses faith in the secular sense, the courage needed to overcome lingering doubts even when doing good. Piccioni's film moves patiently but never plods, while the hypnotically mournful score keeps it rooted in melancholy, lest the scattered moments of refreshing levity lead viewers to believe the tone is shifting. Buy, her beauty masked by her modest habit, makes the most of every small expression, her thoughts and concerns visible even if the quiet film sometimes keeps silent. Orlando, for his part, slowly reveals a tender side to his neurotic and lonely character, and the bittersweet ending is touched with just enough hope and happiness to counter the dominant theme of inner turmoil and paralyzing indecision.