Julianne Moore is adept at this very skill, and her face proves to be an invaluable instrument throughout the film. This sequence alone suggests that Weitz is a natural fit for Patchett’s characters, many of whom have entire conversations without uttering a word. His 2015 Lily Tomlin vehicle, “ Grandma,” is often uproariously funny, yet what lingers most potently in my mind is the final scene, where the camera holds on the titular heroine’s face as she laughs wistfully to herself, recalling unspoken memories of her late love. He may seem like an odd choice for “Bel Canto” until one considers how music has played a crucial role in his career, never moreso than on his exuberant Amazon series, “Mozart in the Jungle.” Humor can be mined from the tensest of scenarios under his direction, with reservoirs of pathos reverberating beneath every laugh.

Now the book has been turned into a movie by Paul Weitz, a director whose work has always been defined by a certain earnestness, whether tackling adolescent sexual frustration (“ American Pie”) or self-imposed isolation (“ About a Boy”). Among the most memorable productions recently staged at the Civic Opera House was the 2015 world premiere of “Bel Canto,” a rapturous adaptation of the 2001 Ann Patchett novel, which was itself inspired by a real-life hostage crisis that took place in Lima, Peru, during the mid-‘90s. During the handful of shows I have seen performed by the Lyric Opera of Chicago, I’ve found myself tempted to avoid reading the translations projected above the cavernous stage, opting instead to let the emotions conveyed through the singers’ majestic vocals speak for themselves. The ideal Mass transforms a group of strangers into a united human family, and the same is true of any art form. All we had to do was make eye contact with each other to affirm that we were sharing in an odyssey of the soul that transcended all the usual barriers erected between us outside the church walls. The most profound instances of spiritual connection I felt during my churchgoing years were not with the excerpts of scripture preached from the pulpit, but with the fellow members of my congregation.

It can spring from any experience that taps into the primal desire within each of us to reach beyond our worldly constraints and grasp at the eternal. Spirituality defies the structure mankind so often craves.

Bel canto ann