Introduction
Maggie Betts wrote and directed Novitiate, which came out in 2017 and is her first work as a feature film director. It is about a woman’s life in the 1960s, her ordeal in training to be a nun as the Vatican II reforms were taking place, and the emotional turmoil that accompanied the changes.
In the movie Novitiate, Margaret Qualley and Melissa Leo put on a stunning performance, bringing to life the story of a nun in training and depicting the intensive emotional Novitiate. The film is about the struggle of a woman who finds herself in the midst of a powerful and delicate transition. The movie does not only serves to culturally document the years gone by, but it is a sensitive tale about a woman’s emotional and spiritual deeply intense conflict between faith and tradition.
Plot Summary
The narrative centers on Cathleen Harris (Margaret Qualley), a bright and empathetic woman coming of age in rural Tennessee in the 1950s. Cathleen’s mother (Julianne Nicholson), a nonreligious and emotionally reserved single parent, nurtures her daughter’s educational curiosities. Because of her scholarship, Cathleen’s impact by the local Catholic school fuels her passion for the Catholic church. Striving for understanding in her life’s journey, she seeks deeper meaning in spirituality and, much to her mother’s horror, hopes to become a nun.
At 17, Cathleen enters a convent to begin her novitiate, which is the initial phase of training and discernment prior to taking final vows. During this stage, she is introduced to a cloistered world of silence, rigorous order, prayer, and hierarchy. The convent’s head is the Reverend Mother (Melissa Leo), stern and authoritative, enforcing rigid pre-Vatican II Catholic orthodoxy. The Reverend Mother holds the young postulants in absolute subjugation commanding them to surrender their will for absolute spiritual perfection.
While Cathleen and her fellow novices go through intense devotion training, their patches of devotion to the church begin to unravel. Some grapple with self-doubt, others grapple with feelings of inadequacy, and many with the physical and emotional strain of the convent’s lifestyle. Cathleen, particularly, starts to face a crisis, both spiritually and existentially. Divinely wished love seems to contest with newly resurfacing feelings of human connection, such as confusion and moments of intimacy with another novice.
Changes to the outside world are underway as well. The Vatican II council is rolling out progressive changes to modernize the church, including policies regarding the role of nuns. The Reverend Mother, loyal to traditional ways, despises the changes and sees them as an attack on venerable tradition. Her resistance to the evolving church is much like the novices’ internal battles with identity, purpose, and belief.
With increasing conflict and tested loyalties, Novitiate comes to a quiet but deep resolution for the two main characters: Cathleen and the Reverend Mother. Both face the burdens of their unshakable beliefs and make a decision on whether the path of devotion to God entails total surrender to Him — or self-exploration, doubt, and defiance.
Main Cast and Their Roles
Margaret Qualley as Cathleen Harris
Qualley’s Cathleen is notable for her sensitivity and expressiveness. Qualley captures the emotional breadth of a young woman trying to navigate a spiritual life. Qualley’s performance holds the film together, providing insight into the character’s internal conflict of faith versus her own identity.
Melissa Leo as Reverend Mother
Leo’s commanding performance received rave reviews. Reverend Mother is a woman paradoxically powerful and fragile with a life devoted to a stagnant Church. Leo captures the character’s authority as well as the fear and fragility that comes with grappling the certainty of her lost power.
Julianne Nicholson as Nora Harris
As Cathleen’s mother, Nicholson offers a cynical and secular counterbalance to the film’s religious zeal. Her scenes are important for emotional balance and highlight the clash between contemporary self-absorption and collective religious submission.
Dianna Agron as Sister Mary Grace
Sister Mary Grace is a kind and progressive nun attempting to reconcile the Reverend Mother with the modernizing Church. Agron’s portrayal is richly nuanced, contributing to the multidimensional representation of women in religious life.
Direction and Cinematic Style
Maggie Betts uses a more refined style in the film that makes the audience feel the emotional load of each scene. The pacing mirrors the slow and repetitive rhythm of a convent. Kat Westergard’s cinematography conveys a sense of reverent and controlling introspection through the soft-lit, muted, color palette straining toward soft tones.
Convents’ interiors are systematically sparse, featuring dim lighting with symmetrical composition representative of the order and austere nature of religious life. The soundtrack’s infrequent choral pieces and focus on soft whispers and prayer add to the silence, creating a sense of spiritual intensity that is gripping and enhances the feeling of solitude.
The emotional and physical aspects of the novices lives are handled with grace and unapologetic honesty. The story’s sexuality, repression, and desire are not fetishized, treated instead as integral to the character’s psychological and spiritual evolution.
Themes and Interpretation
- Faith vs. Institution
Novitiate makes a distinction in personal and organized religion. Cathleen pursues a deeper relationship with God, only to find herself ensnared in a system that prizes compliance and self-abnegation. The film challenges whether faith must require blind submission, or whether it can coexist with personal autonomy and emotional honesty.
- Feminine Spirituality and Power
The documentary explores women’s roles in the context of the Catholic Church’s patriarchy. The Reverend Mother is an ambiguous character; she is both empowered and oppressed in equal measure. The novices, like the rest, struggle to balance autonomy in a system that actively works to erase their individuality. Novitiate showcases the contradictions underneath the surface of religious women’s lives; they are not simply waiting to serve, but are actively engaging with the system.
- Coming-of-Age and Identity
At its heart, Novitiate is an coming-of-age story. Cathleen’s journey is quintessentially human in trying to grapple with identifying oneself – integrating ideals and instincts, beliefs and queries, structures, systems, and freedoms. Her yearning for love, whether of the divine or human variety, speaks to the universal need for connection of all kinds.
- Change and Resistance
The setting of the Vatican II is beneficial in giving context to the film’s ideas on how institutions are often, for lack of a better term, resistant to change, even when that change is vital. The Reverend Mother’s reluctance to embrace change is indicative of a loss of identity, while the reactions of the novices reflect an inter-generational shift toward self-awareness and self-identity.
Reception and Critical Response
At first, Novitiate was critically praised, especially for the performances and the thematic depth of the film, which was thoughtful, and its consideration of complex issues such as religious devotion, feminine agency, and even the notion of spiritual longing. Margaret Qualley was noted for her fne and emotionally complex performance, and Melissa Leo received attention for her powerful, commanding screen presence.
Some viewers found the film’s slow pace and introspective style, especially if they were expecting a more conventional narrative, challenging. Still, the film’s tone was received as a reflection of solemnity and restraint.
Conclusion
Novitiate is a quiet film. Still, emotionally resonant, coupled with the fact that it examines the stark contrast there is between a spiritual calling and what comes with having a personal identity. It is through the journey of a young woman into religious life that the film examines belief, belonging, and the quest for meaning in a world of rigid expectations and constantly shifting ideals.
Through thoughtful direction, powerful performances, and a profound respect for spirituality and individual identity, Novitiate meticulously explores the lives and inner conflicts of women striving for spirituality in a world filled with institutions that aim to guide them. It is a film that provokes thoughtful consideration, invites compassion, and reveals the profound price of surrendering to devotion.
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