Sister Act

Sister Act

Starring Whoopi Goldberg, Maggie Smith, Harvey Heitel, Kathy Najimy

Directed by Emile Ardolino

"Sister Act" will always have a special place in my heart.  I remember seeing it in theaters in 1992, and after that I didn't see another movie in theaters until 1998's "Godzilla" because I spent most of my high school years without any friends and no one to hang out with, and I would never go to a theater by myself (now I mostly prefer it, unless there's something out there that my friends want to see, and always enjoy their company).  So for six years I never set foot in the theater, and my last memory there was seeing this movie.  Watching it again, I realized how much I actually remembered about it, even though it's been at least fifteen years since I saw it last - and not just the lines and songs, but even facial expressions some of the characters had or the editing where I remembered they'd cut from the choir to other moments in the film.

Deloris Van Cartier (Whoopi Goldberg) is a lounge singer in Reno, and in a relationship with married mobster Vince LaRocca (Harvey Keitel).  When she witnesses him murdering an informant, she goes to the police, where Lieutenant Eddie Souther (Bill Nunn) relocates her to San Francisco undercover as a nun at St. Katherine's Parish under the leadership of the Reverend Mother (Maggie Smith).  At first the two butt heads due to Deloris's (now renamed Sister Mary Clarence) obvious non-Catholic worldview, and her presence affects the sisters around her, especially jolly Sister Mary Patrick (Kathy Najimy) and shy Sister Mary Robert (Wendy Makkena), whom befriend Deloris.

The church itself is in disarray and no one is coming to services, mostly due to the abysmal nun choir, and as a form of punishment the Reverend Mother puts Deloris in the choir, but she soon takes command and turns the choir into a respected, talented group that begins to bring the masses back to the church as well as reaching out to the inner city that's around them.  This change alerts the media, and puts Deloris and the other nuns in danger.

"Sister Act" was obviously billed as a comedy, but it also included elements of musical and even crime drama, which made the pacing a bit off-kilter.  The jokes were there, but then the seriousness of a mobster hit loomed heavy over every moment, and while there was the comedy, it came more in the form of the dialogue rather than anything else.  Throughout the film you feel like it's going by the numbers, and you'd be right - it doesn't deviate from the typical comedic norm, even though it did incorporate some serious adult situations that somehow still managed to draw a PG rating instead of a typical PG-13.  The film wanted to be friendly for kids and adults, and for the most part they managed to do it very well, but on the few occasions where things got dark, it became difficult to believe it could balance both sides evenly.

Still, the film pulled it off due to the strong lead performance of Whoopi Goldberg, who really had a heart for the project (so much so she returned for the subsequent sequel, as well as participated in the musical theater revival in London a few years ago).  She played Deloris first as a headstrong, intelligent woman who really looked out for herself, but as she spent time undercover with the other nuns, began to change her attitude and by the end she held the desires of the other nuns higher than her own life - essentially, she saw the light.

The other characters all perform admirably, but as it is with films like this, maintain the status quo of their stock-types.  Maggie Smith's Reverend Mother is the Principal Ed Rooney of the convent, headstrong in her convictions and unwilling to change, especially when Deloris changes the choir to a more secular feel.  Kathy Najimy gives her upbeat persona as the ever-positive Sister, while Wendy Makkena is the obviously shy nun who's afraid to sing but of course turns out to be a powerhouse.  On the non-nun side, Harvey Keitel reaches his wheelhouse as your generic mob boss, while Bill Nunn tackles the easy role of the protective lieutenant.

When I first saw this film I was a twelve-year-old who never set foot in the church, but the songs remained in me to the point where I still remembered them today, decades later, after being through a long time in the church.  Having been through this time of life, I noticed something important that I didn't the first time seeing this: the impact churches should have in the world.  Before her arrival, the church was shuttered away, keeping the nuns hidden behind its doors and only offering a low-brow service where only a handful of people still attended, because the community around them felt that the church had abandoned them.  After Deloris arrived, she saw the bridge to connect the community to the church, and chose to reach out to those outside who were hungry, hurting, and looking for meaning in life.  She led the nuns out of their walls and connected, resulting in the church becoming full of life and people again, by loving the community and not delving into petty differences and arguments that the church seems to thrive on today, which is probably why church attendance has been declining - they're retreating back to their buildings, only coming out to shame one group of people or another.  What "Sister Act" teaches us is that we need to love one another, and not be cooped up in our own ideologies - but maybe I'm just thinking too much about it.  Just enjoy the music!

Led by a committed performance by Whoopi Goldberg, "Sister Act" flourished with lively songs and an upbeat message, even if it resorted to the typical paint-by-numbers script that doesn't allow for much development.

The Score: A