National Post (National Edition)
A movie to believe in
Novitiate
Abit of personal history: There was a time when I considered joining the priesthood. Granted, I was only about eight years old, and I was dissuaded after being unable to determine whether God was real or made up; the latter view is frowned on in ecclesiastic circles.
For Cathleen (Margaret Qualley), growing up in the early 1960s, belief or lack thereof doesn’t seem to be an issue. Despite being the daughter of the avowedly a-religious Nora (Julianne Nicholson), Cathleen decides to become a postulant, the first step on the road to the nunnery.
The feature debut of Margaret Betts, Novitiate (named for the second step the road) is a quiet, remarkably moving story of Cathleen’s journey. But it is also the story of the convent’s Reverend Mother, played by Melissa Leo in a powerful performance that is equal parts faith and rage.
Reverend Mother Marie St. Claire of the Sisters of Blessed Rose is tougher than a drill sergeant, and puts the superior in Mother Superior. She tells the new members of her flock: “Since unfortunately God can’t be here to run this convent Himself, my voice will serve as a stand-in for His.”
And we get the first taste of her mind games when she concludes: “Any questions?” Hand goes up. “Put your hand down. Sister. Postulants don’t have questions. And you are free to go home.”
Leo’s character may strike fear into the hearts of her trainees, but there’s some context behind her cruelty. In 1959, Pope John XXIII convened the first ecumenical council in almost 100 years. The reforms of “Vatican 2” included dropping Latin as the language of Mass, doing away with habits, and suggesting that nuns get out of cloisters and into the community.
For the Reverend Mother, a bride of Christ for 40 years, it’s as though her husband suddenly started cheating on her. She tries ignoring the papal decrees until a bizarre meeting with the archbishop (Denis O’Hare) who uses the patriarchy as a stick, even while demanding she change her “medieval” practices.
Swirling through the background of this heartfelt film are Cathleen’s peers, many of them struggling with doubt, or the possibility of having signed up for the wrong reason.
One woman admits she’s a huge fan of Audrey Hepburn in The Nun’s Story, while another frets: “What if I’m faking it and I don’t even realize it?”
For Kathleen, lack of intimacy seems to be the biggest problem — not sex, though that’s part of it, but the nuns aren’t allows to touch, are discouraged from making eye contact, and are forbidden to speak during the Great Silence, which seems to make up most of the day. (On the plus side, they’re all experts in sign language.) But even God can’ t hold your hand or stroke your hair.
Viewers may find themselves conflicted. On the one hand, Cathleen seems truly committed to her choice; on the other, her Mother Superior has created a toxic environment, and her actual mother is distraught at the changes she sees in her daughter.
Betts navigates a narrow path between praising the Church and damning it. If there is a single image that dominates the film, it is that of a statue of the Virgin Mary in the cloister courtyard, at once serene and welcoming, cold and stony. The nuns’ future seems similarly forked and uncertain. ∂∂∂∂½ Novitiate opens Nov. 3 in Vancouver and Toronto, and Nov. 10 in Montreal, with other cities to follow.