I kept telling people at work last night to go see this movie, and not a single person had even heard of it. Then again, if movies like this had big enough budgets to advertise themselves all over, they might not feel as authentic or important when we see them in a small, empty theater.
Novitiate follows the life of young Cathleen (Margaret Qualley) as she falls in love with God and, much to the horror of her mother (Julianne Nicholson), enters a convent to become a nun. The film then broadens to include the stories of the other nuns and novices cloistered in the church. As the year is 1964, of primary concern here are the new directives from the Vatican II, ordering the church to relax its strict disciplinary atmosphere and to be more tolerant and forgiving. This does not sit well with the all-powerful Mother Superior (Melissa Leo), nor with many of the other nuns, and the seams of convent life begin to stretch.
I don't want to give too much away, but the film follows in the grand (if often soft-spoken) tradition of quality religious dramas that look behind the veil, so to speak, at lives devoted to serving God and the church. Half the film feels like a documentary, simply engaging the audience with daily routines of the nuns -- their habits, if you will. We get intimate perspective on not only their belief system but their opinions about their belief system (including the repeated idea that they are literally married to God), and access to the inner sanctum of a woman who claims her own voice to be God's.
I'd compare this film to two others in content and message. Doubt (2008), one of my all-time favorites, similarly concerns life behind the walls of a convent and ends with a faith-shattering climax of moral ambiguity and, well, doubt. Whereas that film, though, is intensely plot-driven with the mystery of a priest's possibly inappropriate attention to underage children, Novitiate is more character-driven, portraying the various responses the nuns have to changing norms, questioned faith, and burgeoning sexuality. The other film, oddly enough, is Goat (2016), a fascinating and horrifying look into the lives of fraternity hazing. While Novitiate features almost no men, the content is surprisingly similar, if less violent. The nuns are expected to radically change their lifestyle for God, and so it is no big deal when one starves herself sick or when they "discipline" themselves by night with a medieval-looking whip. Gripping moments also feature the novices being made to crawl on the pavement praying for mercy, or kneeling in a circle while confessing their "faults" and enduring accusations and criticism from the others. The process of humiliation and degradation is presented calmly enough, which makes it all the more disturbing.
That said, the film is also remarkably feminist in its concern with the agency and integrity of these women. Some nuns leave the convent (such as Dianna Agron, who departs in a cold fury after being denied information about Vatican II), while some novices are cast out for failing the rigorous demands of the Mother Superior. But all are given due screen time and at least one major scene that reveals their opinions and, more importantly, their choices. They all desperately want this life, for one reason or another, and as we follow their chosen love affair with God and the church (and, sometimes, each other) we see the consequences of that choice. We see the pitfalls and hardships of their chaste servitude, and we see sometimes the rewards.
Novitiate is a marvel precisely because, though it does not shy away from difficult storytelling or honesty, it stops just short of preaching. It's not a rallying cry against the Catholic church like Philomena or Priest, but it shows a sympathetic view of church life at a terribly difficult time in its recent history. Post-script tells us that some 90,000 nuns left the church in the mid-'60s, and when we see the Mother Superior lying on the sanctuary steps yelling at God for abandoning her, we can certainly see why.
P.S. Melissa Leo as Mother Superior is terrifying and fabulous. Margaret Qualley as Cathleen is a revelation.
IMDb: Novitiate
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