October 27, 2017 2 min to read

Novitiate

Novitiate is sensitive, thought-provoking, and intimate. It smartly navigates both skepticism and admiration for the Catholic Church.

by Zach Saul

Novitiate is at times maddeningly slow, but it does examine faith - specifically the love that accompanies faith in a really intelligent way. As a secular person - I may never fully understand why religious people love God so much - but I can identify with the underlying existential desires. For this film’s nuns there is a complicated relationship between sacrifice/suffering. In some cases the church condones “extreme acts of penance” and these acts accompany deep loving feelings. While this seems utterly ridiculous to the passing observer (not raised in organized religion) Novitiate’s greatest achievement is a long and nuanced meditation on to what extent suffering contributes to intimacy.

Novitiate’s second great achievement is illustrating what a problematic idea “holiness” is. Without demeaning traditionalism, belief, or conservatism this film uses sexuality to mirror human closeness to spiritual closeness. Giving in to impulsive desires is broadly looked down upon, but it’s also central to the romanticism that sustains spirituality. The underpinnings of sexual desire for Kathleen (Margaret Qualley) are the same underpinnings of her faith. Novitiate points out that central to the concept of “purity” that reverend Mother (Melissa Leo) strives for is “humility”, and placing ideological imperatives ahead of feeling “superior”. I don’t believe in a God the same way religious people do (so take this with a grain of salt) - but It’s hard for me to imagine Jesus keeps an updated ranking of all his followers. So…as an honorary member of the catholic church for the two hours I spent watching this film, I wholeheartedly endorse the Vatican II’s reforms.

Melissa Leo gave what I thought was the strongest performance as an impressively nuanced “Reverend Mother”. No matter how old we get, grappling with change is something universal that every viewer can relate to. For this reason despite the several cringe-worthy scenes in which Leo’s psychological torture of the girls gets extreme, her character still feels relatable. Perhaps it’s because Reverend Mother is the only one we get to see experience instances of catharsis - either anger, sadness or grief - and that humanizes her.

The Good: Novitiate is thoughtful, and meditative - and probably the most intimate look at Catholicism I’ve ever seen. I can’t speak to it’s accuracy at depicting what the Novitiate is truly like; but the movie feels very mature, and respectful of the inner-monologues pledging nun’s struggle with. It shoots at a lot of big ideas and hits most of them, specifically the interaction between suffering, intimacy, and duty.

The Bad: Novitiate is maddeningly slow, and the first half hour in particular is completely unnecessary. As beautiful, nuanced and thoughtful as this film is in showing the church, it doesn’t do a good job drawing dynamic characters for the skeptics in Kathleen’s life.