Movie Review :: Holy Days

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‘Holy Days’ is a lightly comic piece with mild moments of drama and darkness.
by Jeremy Fogelman

Cast: Judy Davis, Miriam Margolyes, Elijah Tamati, Jacki Weaver

Rating: ★★

I do wonder about both cultural and religious differences and their context in art -- some very specific references of a particular country or religious practice might be a little specific for me to appreciate, while natives or adherents might get more out of it than I do. So I must simply take things for what they give me, and how I feel about it is only based on what I know and see.

Holy Days comes from director Nat Boltt, co-written with Joy Cowley, who wrote the 2000 book of the same name that this movie adapts. Here we follow three nuns in the 1970s in New Zealand in their troubled convent -- Judy Davis as Sister Agnes, Miriam Margolyes as Sister Luke, and Jacki Weaver as Sister Mary Clare. Agnes is the no-nonsense serious leader who plays by the rules, sometimes to her detriment, Luke is the slightly demented, overly silly one, and Mary Clare is the peacemaker and empathetic compromiser.

Local ten year old boy Brian Collins (Elijah Tamati) has been hanging around them a great deal recently, looking for comfort in the wake of his mother’s death, and trying to avoid his father’s (Craig Hall) new fiancée (also Nat Boltt, although it’s a minor role) because he doesn’t want to see his mother replaced. At the same time, local scheming priest Father Findlay (Jonny Brugh) is trying to sell the convent, with a well meaning but ineffectual bishop (John Bach) unable to stop it.

So the three nuns discover that the original land deed and contract might spell success for them, but it’s quite a journey away, and the road is complicated, but there’s a lawyer that might have it -- Brian’s aunt Patricia (Tanea Heke). They head off with Brian, an unlikely group, with finicky careful Agnes leading them and Luke as the most childish, ridiculous of them all. Eventually they do find the aunt after a series of little moments, but things are not always so simple.

Brian is trying (and failing) to deal with the loss of his mother, and his desire to join her in the afterlife (which one cannot imagine she’d want). The nuns struggle with their faith and the potential loss of the convent, while trying to offer condolences and support to the young kid -- no simple thing in either way.

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Along the way we see beautiful vistas of New Zealand along with stop motion animation with models to show the travels -- this is the highlight of the movie, that production design and cinematography, although the dramatic beats (for the most part) hit fairly well. What doesn’t really work is the comedic beats, many of which are comedy of errors type, physical or scatological humor, and the innate juxtaposition of a serious figure like a nun involved in something silly. 

These three actresses have been doing movies for a long time -- this does feel like mostly beneath their talents, except for a few dramatic scenes where they actually get a chance to show what we know they can do. Sadly Miriam Margolyes is saddled with the worst character, barely getting any real moments to shine, because the movie doesn’t really grapple with the mental faculty problems in any meaningful way, which it really does for the grief and loss of Brian.

As a child actor, Elijah Tamati does well enough holding his own against the others, although it’s not helped by some clunky lines in the script. There are potentially some problematic aspects of the story elided over, like the alleged abuses of the Church there, but since the movie both praises the nuns while derides the greed of one of the priests, you can see that there is an attempt to understand the balance and humanity of the clergy. It’s a cute enough movie, nothing amazing, but it’s nice to see some of these actresses still getting a chance to shine -- I think Nat Boltt, given that this is her feature film debut, did a pretty good job from the direction perspective -- but perhaps the story this was adapting was a little tricky to fully adapt the same way.

Holy Days has a run time of 1 hour 41 minutes, and is not rated.