A divine tale of girl deciding to become a nun
An impressive feature debut from writer-director Margaret Betts, boasting a memorably villainous turn by Melissa Leo, “Novitiate” is set in the early 1960s to the tune of the “Tennessee Waltz” in a rural community, where a girl named Cathleen Harris (Sasha Mason as a child, a terrific Margaret Qualley as an adult) decides against her mother’s wishes to become a nun and be “the wife of God.”
Cathleen is the product of a nonreligious, divorced home, living with her working mother, Nora (Julianne Nicholson), who is obviously no saint. Sister Cathleen is a young, radiantly beautiful woman torn between several parental authority figures whose love and approval she craves: her no-nonsense, outraged mother and the righteously and not-so-righteous authoritarian Mother Superior (Leo) of her strict Sister of the Rose convent, where work, prayer, silence, humiliation and self-abnegation are regular activities.
Cathleen is also torn between the male figures, represented by her mostly absent and combative father (Chris Zylka), and the idealized God, including Jesus Christ, with whom she has spiritual relationships and to whom she gives her love unconditionally. But is it enough?
“Novitiate” will remind some of the work of Sofia Coppola, who has also made films with mostly female casts. But “Novitiate” is more satisfying than Coppola’s recent effort “The Beguiled,” although it resembles it in many ways. While the film focuses on Sister Cathleen — a pos- tulant who will soon take the vows of a novitiate and then have one-and-a-half years before taking her per- manent vows as a nun — we also witness the emo- tional breakdown of Leo’s increasingly sadistic Moth- er Superior after she learns of the reforms demanded by Pope John XXIII’s Vatican II, reforms that include a reduction in the standing of nuns in the church and a ban on the more medieval punishments and practices.
On a small budget, writ- er-director Betts works wonders with the preexist- ing and well-invoked set design of Catholicism — the costumes, props, music, rituals and architecture. Dianna Agron is marvel- ous as an slightly older nun with doubts. In the role of an equally authoritarian but considerably less abrasive archbishop, Denis O’Hare is a hoot. Qualley, the daughter of Andie MacDowell, is a revelation.