A Religion on the Verge of Revision

Margaret Qualley in "Novitiate"

Change is something to which we all react differently.  Some accept it and others resist it.  It can be difficult to be asked to give up the way things were in order to make way for something new, which is something that’s viewed from a religious perspective in Margaret Betts’ new drama, “Novitiate.”  With strong performances from the film’s cast, we’re given a deep approach into how these changes impacted those whose beliefs were their lives.

In 1964, 17-year-old Cathleen Harris (Margaret Qualley), decides to leave her home and live in a convent to become a nun.  Devout in her newfound faith, she works through the rigorous process to achieve her calling.  All of this is done under the watchful eye of Reverend Mother Marie St. Clair (Melissa Leo), who’s grappling with the Second Vatican Council, which is proposing reforms in the church that the Reverend Mother fears will upend the way of life for which she and other nuns have worked to reach.

What elevates Margaret Qualley’s performance is that her character isn’t someone who’s an overly impassioned individual, but someone who, despite feeling introverted, is dedicated to her calling, enough to leave everything and everyone she loves behind in order to become what she wants.  Later in the film, Qualley succeeds in conveying her character’s sense of conflict when Cathleen’s pulled between the new leniency of the church and personal matters that she doesn’t think fit with her new lifestyle, even with the reforms.  This film is one of those instances where the performance doesn’t have many scenes of “big acting,” but is instead made up of mostly subdued moments that hold their own power because of Qualley’s ability to display her character’s pensive, innocent nature.

For Melissa Leo, it’s wonderful that she has been given another meaty role, seeing as it’s been almost seven years after she won her Oscar for “The Fighter.”  Leo’s performance provides a level of force that makes her character’s anxiety-producing, student-instructor interactions on level with that of J.K. Simmons’ verbally abusive jazz conductor  in “Whiplash.”  Her character is equal parts intimidating because of her ironclad devotion to her standards of the sisterhood, but also sympathetic in that she feels like she’s losing her grasp on something that has given meaning to her life.  These two traits fit together because we understand that she’s as strict as she is because she wants to maintain the proper behavior of the nuns as a way to combat the changes she doesn’t want, a desperation in her character that soon makes us feel more for her than fear her.

Dianna Agron is wonderful in her role as Sister Mary Grace, a young nun whose compassion acts as a haven for the young girls from the reverend mother.  Whenever she’s on screen, her presence provides a sense of calm and relief as we’re temporarily taken out of the Reverend Mother’s sight.  But, her character is more than that because she’s just as conflicted as Qualley and Leo, in that she wants to be at the convent to guide the postulants, but is having difficulties remaining loyal to the institution because of its rules and restrictions.

The rest of the supporting cast that portrays the postulants does a stellar job at exhibiting the mental and emotional hardships that come with their process, calling into question of whether or not it’s worth it to give up all that they have in order to live a life that’s shut away from everything else.  One of the standouts in this group of postulants is Morgan Saylor, who plays Sister Evelyn, whose most memorable moments come in a sequence where the Reverend Mother has the postulants sit around her and reveal what they believe to be their individual flaws that are holding them back from being the nuns they’re trying to be.

The screenplay by Betts offers a fascinating look into how this religious institution functions and the turning point that they’re experiencing.  Throughout the narrative, Betts provides equal focus on both the reforms that the convent is facing and how it operates as it provides the education that the postulants need to become nuns, all of which gives us a view into a world closed off from everything else.

As a director, Betts provides an abundance of tension in the scenes where the postulants are in the presence of the Reverend Mother, while also displaying considerable emotional power in the moments where Cathleen and the Reverend Mother must reevaluate their lives in the face of major changes.  These aspects help make “Novitiate” a layered examination of traditional, religious practices and how they were adjusted for the twentieth century.

Final grade: A