Sister Damian (Joanna Pettet) has a calling in addition to her life as a nun. She feels the need to work with disadvantaged people through the probation office and is about to start a job working there as Marjorie Walker--with only her boss knowing she's a nun. Despite sounding like a really dumb premise, this is apparently based on a true story, that of Joyce Duco! However, I strongly doubt that Duco was this naive and this dopey when it came to her probationers. The problem is EVERYTHING her probationers tell her, this lady instantly believes...with wide-eyed innocence. This Mary Poppins sort of attitude really makes no sense. Yes, a nun might be much more likely to look into the good in people...but to be THIS naive?! I strongly doubt that...especially since someone like this would be almost completely useless as a probation officer. In other words, the writing was highly unrealistic and tended to portray Marjorie more as an annoying caricature than someone who really works with probationers. I was a social worker and worked a lot with the probation department...and someone like Marjorie would have lasted about 10 minutes on the job! Highly unrealistic and even cartoonish at times. I would love to see a new version...one that sticks closer to Duco's life and respects the audience's intelligence.
According to "The ABC Movie of the Week Companion", this film was actually the pilot for a potential TV series. I can clearly understand why the series was never made!!
