Sister Mary Explains It All

I love reading other people's commentary. Of course, the downside is seeing opinions that differ from one's own. I had to say, this movie was pretty darned funny.

Of course, the folks who have seen the play on stage will say the movie was a poor replica; it is their duty as "insiders" to knock any reproduction of what they felt was especially theirs. The screenplay was by the same man who wrote the play, and he sculpted it very carefully. To knock the movie is to knock the playwright, which to any Durang fan is quite the slight.

As for the heavy-handed approach to Catholicism; why not? I'm sure, if Durang had suffered through a Jewish school of the same nature, we would be seeing a film and/or play based on his days with the Semite community. He just happened to be Catholic, and wrote a brilliant satire of what he knew.

And of course, there is the erratic pacing of the film. Odd sequences, strange juxtapositions, etc. It is all very confusing at times, but it all serves a purpose. If one has dealt with Durang before, one knows that his delivery is always quite odd, and always biting. The performance by Keaton actually emphasized the strange nature of his writing, and while it might not have been as stellar as some stage performances, it deffinetely served its purpose.

Basically, it is an odd film. The words of Christopher Durang presented by quite the cast of actors, coupled with a pretty decent director, brought a brilliant play to (recorded) life. I can assure you that any misscomfort you feel was fully intentional. It takes you on a rollercoaster from hillarity to shock to horror, all the time driving home a very blatant message.

And by the way, non-Catholics get the jokes, too.

Those who have suffered through years of the Sister Marys and the Baltimore Catechism and the ridiculous and simplistic beliefs that are Catholicism will either love this film, or be utterly shocked that their system is so beautifully ridiculed.

The fact that Catholic League President William Donohue blasted Viacom, the owner of Showtime, for showing this is justification enough to watch. Anything that gets Donahue's shorts twisted must be good.

Diane Keaton was just marvelous as Sister Mary. It has to be the best performance I have seen from her.

Of course, I always like to see Laura San Giacomo, who was also great as the good little girl who grew up to the real world and found that there is no God.

Brian Benben, Wallace Langham. and Jennifer Tilly were also fantastic and made this film the real joy that it was.

I would be remiss not to praise Max Morrow as the young actor who was just precious.

Christopher Durang wrote a great play and screenplay that really ties it all together for the mess that it is.

Christopher Durang must have been taught by a memorably awful nun, because he just can't let go of the concept. The play, "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You," was presented -- at least in Hollywood -- in precisely the same tone as Diane Keaton's lecture scenes here. Sister Mary was an exaggeration, a lampoon, a bitter satire of a serenely confident, doctrinaire and highly judgmental nun -- and as played by Lynn Redgrave, she was hilarious. But the movie insists that we take this exaggeration absolutely seriously -- while, as mentioned, maintaining the same tone in the "explains it all" scenes. The two approaches clash headlong and in the last twenty minutes, the movie goes off the track, plunges into the gorge, and explodes. There are no survivors. It could have worked, if the tone of the scenes with the four former students, and their encounter with Sister Mary, been pitched the same as the Sister Mary scenes. Or if the Sister Mary scenes been presented more realistically. This way simply doesn't work at all.

Just to add two bits to this. I, too, studied with a nun with a male saint's name, Sister Joseph Maureen. That's why I always quipped -- even before seeing Durang's play -- "The ones with the male saints' names are the worst." Sister Joseph Maureen was such a terror that I was sent to a psychologist at 7.

As to who is and isn't a "nun," for 99 percent of those in the Roman Catholic Church, both contemplative (cloistered) sisters and apostolic (out in the world as teachers, nurses and, nowadays, other occupations) sisters are referred to as "nuns." Indeed, in 1984, when I wrote my master's thesis on modern nuns, apostolic sisters freely referred to themselves and others in the apostolic orders as nuns. The distinction is not much observed in everyday speech.

Finally Chris Durang's controversial 1981 one-act play SISTER MARY IGNATIUS EXPLAINS IT ALL FOR YOU has been brought to the screen - the small screen - by the boundary-pushing SHOWTIME, appropriately enough. Durang himself penned the screenplay and effectively opens up what is inherently part lecture, part stand-up, and part vaudeville. The major problem faced is how to deal with the "audience" that the theatre provided in the form of ticket buyers each evening.

Durang re-sets the action of his "Nun's Story" at Christmas, the eve of Sister Mary's 25th Annual lecture, and works in a variety of wayward Catholic parishoners attending Sister's obligatory holiday talk-fest. Among them are a pair of teens who have been having pre-marital sex, a nearly deaf devotee of Sister's who just likes to see people smile, a bitter divorcee (producer Victoria Tennent), as well as a dysfunctional couple (Martin Mull is the hubby, and his expressions during Sister's rants are priceless) who'd rather be shopping. Primary among Sister's guests are four students from her 1959 class, who have decided to re-enact their Nativity pageant in order to embarrass the strict nun. This quartet consists of a variety of folk Sister now classifies as "going to burn in hell" and are led by the particularly bitter Angela DiMarco (a stunning turn by Laura San Giacomo), whose name has been changed from the play from Diane Symonds, one of the few text changes made. Once they arrive, Sister's best laid plans go awry and the lecture reels wildly out of control.

Marshall Brickman's precise direction (including some nifty flashbacks to sepia-toned 1959) keep Durang's humor intact, but it is the "star turn" of Diane Keaton as Sister Mary who single-handedly destroys the tone of Durang's greatest work. The role is a demanding one, no doubt, but Keaton's approach is erratic, random, and leans toward humor where pathos is required. The delicate balance of SISTER MARY relies upon how "real" Sister seems to us. Keaton treats the character as a stand-up comedian, we never see a glimpse of her soul. Sister Mary really is a frightened and insecure woman whose reality and way of life is slipping quickly away. Half grandmother, half dictator, the habit's original owner Elizabeth Franz was one of the few to hit the exact right notes and she's sorely missed here. While I'm glad to see the piece finally lensed, I'll have to be happy with my memories of the stage production for the "real" Sister Mary Ignatius.