"Might as well"

Natty will be happy to know that I’m resurrecting my “Nuns on Film” series … although I don’t know if I really call the movie in question a “film.” It’s a movie, and a stupid movie at that. But even in the stupid movies of life, there are lessons to be learned.

A recent visitor found their way to this humble spot in the blogosphere by googling “what type of woman becomes a nun.” The answer of course is that all sorts of women become nuns. I suppose a few common denominators would be a love of God and a desire to help people, not to mention the mysterious element of the vocational call.

On the other hand running away from something is not really a good reason to become a nun. This is illustrated in an almost humorous and semi interesting way in the movie Saving Silverman. Yes, I’ll admit it … I just watched Saving Silverman. Or more accurately, I watched portions of it and fast forwarded through the rest. It’s a silly/stupid move … I knew that going in. And it does in fact feature a former trapeze artist who entered the convent after her trapeze artist partner/boyfriend fell to a tragic death. Her reasoning? Since she “knew” she’d never love again, she “might as well” serve the Lord and help people. For the record, “might as well” is not the best motivation for exploring a religious vocation … or anything for that matter. Marriages founded on “might as well” do not tend to last either!

Saving Silverman is filled with inaccurate portrayals of religious life in a effort I think to be funny. Exhibit a) our nun-in-training is wearing a hip hugging habit type thing with a super short skirt. Exhibit b) she lifts weights with the Mother Superior in full habit (although she herself has her mini-habit on) while other Sisters are kickboxing in the corner. The scales are balanced in favor of slapstick over reality. The interesting side note about this is that the producers of the movie did make the effort to find out what religious life is actually like these days. They talked to our groovy vocation director Sr. Jo-Anne in fact. I know this because in appreciation for her time, they blew up a great picture of Sr. Jo-Anne’s novice class in their wedding dresses, right before they got the habit. (Yes that’s how it used to be … no I will not be wearing a wedding dress or a form fitting short skirted habit either!). She told me the story when she showed me the picture last year.

But that’s off topic. What I find interesting is that the most accurate bit about religious life in the movie is the fact that her “might as well” motivation ends up not being enough. Not to spoil the movie for you, but she ends up falling in love and leaving the convent right before she’s to take her final vows.

I really only rented the movie because as I saw it at the video store, I remembered that they’d talked to Sr. Jo-Anne. My curiosity was peaked … and I was almost entertained!

If anyone has recommendations for GOOD subjects for future “Nuns on Film” posts, drop a note in the comments or send me an e-mail.