Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (June 2, 2024)
Best known for male-oriented classics like 1952’s High Noon and 1953’s From Here to Eternity, director Fred Zinneman went for a more female-centered tale with 1959’s The Nun’s Story. Based on Katherine Hulme’s 1956 novel, this one offers the logical concentration on a member of a convent.
In Belgium circa the 1920s, Gabrielle van der Mal (Audrey Hepburn) decides to leave behind her wealthy family to become a nun. She craves to minister to victims of tropical diseases in the Congo.
Now known as “Sister Luke”, she makes it there after a stint in a nunnery, and she gets to know the brilliant non-believing surgeon Dr. Fortunati (Peter Finch). We follow Sister Luke’s efforts and her eventual return to Europe during World War II.
Would it seem cynical for me to wonder if Hepburn took Story in an effort to change her cinematic image? Prior to 1959, she earned her success mainly via romantic comedies like Funny Face and Roman Holiday.
Story didn’t offer Hepburn’s first pure drama. However, it definitely turned into a departure from her established pattern.
Pushing 30 at the time, Hepburn was probably about a decade too old for the part. Still, she brings the appropriate attitude and tone to Sister Luke.
Too bad Hepburn finds herself in a movie that takes far too long to get where it needs to go. Granted, I get the slow pacing and 152-minute length in their attempts to depict the challenges of Sister Luke’s journey.
Sister Luke’s training goes until 45 minutes into the movie, and she doesn’t actually get to the Congo until around the 70-minute mark. Story uses all that space to show the strict and difficult life of the young nun.
While I understand these decisions, they nonetheless make it a struggle to stick with Story. I think the movie intends to show the strains Sister Luke experiences as it points toward the possibility that the nun life doesn’t offer a great fit for her.
Indeed, a lot of the tale teases the possibility that Sister Luke will eventually leave that job. However, it does so in such a subdued manner that we never feel much tension.
Instead, Story just meanders as it shows aspects of Sister Like’s life. It seems somewhat interesting to get a “behind the scenes” glimpse of the restrictions placed on nuns, but the tale proceeds in such a slow and drama-free manner that it can feel stuck in neutral.
Once Sister Luke meets Dr. Fortunati, we finally discover some actual tension, though happily, Story avoids the romantic friction one might anticipate. I won’t claim the film fails to depict a potential connection between the two, but it keeps this side of the narrative low-key and skips the expected soap opera melodrama.
The second half of Story manages to become more engaging than the first, but it still never quite clicks. Though the film seems beloved by many, I think it moves too slowly and lacks too much narrative thrust to become a winning affair.
