SYNOPSICS
Novitiate (2017) is a English,American Sign Language,Latin movie. Maggie Betts has directed this movie. Melissa Leo,Lisa Stewart,Alyssa Brindley,Chelsea Lopez are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2017. Novitiate (2017) is considered one of the best Drama movie in India and around the world.
1964. Cathleen Harris, in her late teens, has resided at the Convent of the Beloved Rose in her home state in the American south for close to two years, first as a postulant for six months, before taking her first vows to become a novice. Unlike the other postulants and novices, Sister Cathleen was raised in a household without religion, let alone Catholicism. As such, her decision to become a nun, which went against her divorced mother's wishes, may be more secure in her mind than her colleagues for which this life course may be more bred within them. The convent is led by the Mother Abbess, Reverend Mother Marie Saint Clare, whose entire life is this convent off of where she not stepped foot in forty years. Reverend Mother believes she is the voice of God within the walls of the convent, and thus does not tolerate any of the sisters questioning her authority. She also believes that the Catholicism which she has known all her life is perfect. When she receives an edict regarding the ...
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Complex issues well handled
Novitiate is a very solid debut film for Margaret Betts. It covers many themes from religion, faith, doubt, love, and internal turmoil of young girls who decide to devote their lives to God. The writing is good and the story moves fluently throughout the entire film with the exeption of maybe the last few minutes where things slow down a bit. Another positive thing about the writing is that it does not try to attack the church or ever turns into an anti-religion type of film. Everything is explored realistically. Especially the feelings of young girls who sometimes question their choices and ask themselves if it is really worth it. It is essentially a story about love, giving love, sometimes losing it and receiving it back. A vast topic but handled really well in my opinion. Another thing worth mentioning are the performances. All the actresses give great performances with Melissa Leo and Julianne Nicholson being the standouts. Recommended for that, good writing and solid direction.
They only wanted to love Jesus
Novitiate (2017) was written and directed by Margaret Betts. Margaret Qualley portrays Sister Cathleen, who decides to become a nun because of her love for Jesus. She was not raised as a Catholic. In fact, her mother (Julianne Nicholson) considers the decision as a horribly bad move. As the movie progresses, I started to believe that her mother was right. Young women who want to love and serve Jesus are systematically brutalized and humiliated by the Reverend Mother (Melissa Leo). In fact, the Reverend Mother appears consumed by her desire not to allow the young women to think. She also makes it difficult for them to bond with each other. She demands total and absolute obedience from all the women--postulants, novitiates, and nuns. Then, Vatican II ends, and the Catholic church wants to modernize and change. Whether this is good news or bad news for the nuns is an open question in the context of this movie. You'll have to see the movie to learn what happens to Sister Cathleen and the other novitiates. We saw this film at Rochester's excellent Little Theatre, but it will work on the small screen. As I write this review, the movie has a anemic 6.7 IMDb rating. I think it's better than that.
Totally inaccurate and absurd
I am a Catholic Dominican Sister and I watched this film with a mixture of horror and humor, thinking that yet again, a film, even in 2018, has depicted Catholic religious women as totally crazy in oh so many ways. My Sisters watched it and kept interrupting it with questions - "so-they make vows to become novices???? After six months?? And then, perpetual vows at the end of a year and a half of the novitiate? So, Cathleen is 19 and making a life commitment? You have got to be kidding me!!" I was a postulant for one year, a novice (white veil, no vows) for one year- then temporary vows for at least five years, then vowed for life. I was 30. No wonder these kids aren't sure - they are still teenagers!!! No one broke mirrors, no one made us crawl in shame, no one would laugh at a sister with dementia - where do they get this stuff???? Reverend Mother's House of Horrors - was there absolutely no one happy in that Convent - except for the Novice Director, who, of course, left. And no one to replace her to help these young women???? And all of those Sisters left because of Vatican II? It had to be no more than a month, at most. They all jumped ship rather quickly! And they left because of Reverend Mother's three minute brutal summary of Vatican II, which actually lasted five years and produced volumes of documents. We studied the Vatican II documents for two years as Novices and Postulants. Mother's talk was enough for many to just pack up and leave?? Can no one write a realistic film about a convent that isn't either as silly as Whoopie or as sadomasochistic as this one? Lord, help us!
Stunning debut is among this year's best films
"Novitiate" (2017 release; 123 min.) brings the story of Kathleen. As the movie opens, we are told it is "1964" and we get to know Kathleen as she is in a nuns' convent. "I was 17 when I entered the convent, 18 when I started the novitiate. We are all women in love." Wow. We then go to "Ten Years Earlier", as we get to know young Kathleen and her mother, and how Kathleen becomes interested in Catholic school, then the Catholic faith, and eventually the Catholic church. At this point we are 10 min, into to movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out. Couple of comments: this is the feature length debut of writer-director Maggie Betts, And what a debut it is! Betts takes a close look at what the road is like towards becoming a nun, with a 6 months postulate and then the 18 months novitiate. These are all young women with an idealistic view of the Catholic church. In a parallel story, Betts also examines the consequences of the Vatican II reforms. The Reverend Mother who runs the convent is entirely opposed to any ref0rms. "Isn't the church just perfect as it is?", she retorts when a younger nun questions her. As one might expect, the pace of the movie is quite slow and deliberate, so this isn't for anyone in a hurry. At times it almost feels like a documentary. I was bowled over by it all, to be honest, and felt deeply invested into these characters. There are a number of scenes in the movie that will break your heart (the disbelief of Kathleen's mother upon learning what Kathleen intends to do with her life; the "chapel of faults"--I shan't say more...). As it plays out, one can't help but be reminded of "The Nun's Story" starring Audrey Hepburn (when asked why she decided to become a nun, one of the young ladies refers to that movie). The movie is helped enormously by several towering performances: Melissa Leo as the Reverend Mother is outstanding, but even better is Margaret Qualley as Kathleen (in one of her first movie roles--she is best known for her recurring role in HBO's The Leftovers). Qualley reminded me physically immediately of a younger Kirsten Stewart. The range of emotions that Qualley is able to convey on the big screen makes it very clear to me that this is a major up-and-coming talent, the last of which we surely haven't seen. Same can be said of writer-director Maggie Betts. If it sounds like I am gushing about this movie, you bet I am. This movie is for me one of the best I have seen this year. "Novitiate" premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival to immediate critical acclaim. No idea why it's taken so long to reach my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati, but better late than never. The Saturday evening screening where I saw this at was attended very nicely. You could hear a pin drop, as the theater was enraptured by this film. If you are in the mood for a probing psychological drama that poses some serious questions about religion and faith and features several stunning acting performances, you cannot go wrong with this, be it in the theater, on VOD or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray. "Novitiate" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Another reason for people who think the Catholic Church is diabolical to keep thinking it
Well, I hardly know where to begin in describing how sad, tedious and inaccurate this film is. I have been a happy and healthy Dominican Sister for over 40 years, and I was optimistic that this would be a good film. I'm really sorry I wasted two hours on it. It does not do justice to the times, the complexity of the changes that began to emerge with Vatican II, and it is not even accurate in describing the process of becoming a nun. So I just wonder where Margaret Betts got her information. Did she interview anybody who actually stayed and found happiness in religious life? I doubt it. There was no joy, no sense of companionship or sense of being part of something exciting. No real narrative about what the impact of Vatican II had on Catholic thought, just a few superficial conversations between the Archbishop and the Reverend Mother. It is a bleak and morose story of postulant Cathleen's struggle to survive a mean and closed minded mother superior whose ego should have driven her to confession. Too bad, this could have been a great story, with compelling dialogue, dramatic tension, and a breakthrough moment of personal change. Instead it was a painful exaggeration of the predictable inaccurate stereotypes of Catholic Sisters, complete with Nun-Zilla. It gives people who have always hated the Catholic Church a good reason to keep hating it. Margaret Betts was scheduled to Skype in and have a conversation with the audience at the theater we attended. I'm kind of glad she could not make it. The sisters in the audience would have had a hard time coming up with something nice to say.