Westergaard's camera also loves the eager, yearning faces of young women like Sister Evelyn (Morgan Saylor) and Sister Sissy (Maddie Hasson), who come to the convent with such high hopes, and we come to feel the same. Brought to unsettling life by [Melissa] Leo, the reverend mother ... does not hesitate to tell the girls to treat everything she says as the word of God. Mark Levine / Sony Pictures Classics Melissa Leo as Reverend Mother in a scene from the movie "Novitiate." Melissa Leo as Reverend Mother in a scene from the movie "Novitiate." Though the newcomers are overseen by the empathetic Sister Mary Grace (Dianna Agron), it is the convent's mother superior, addressed as reverend mother, who is very much the sister in charge.

Source: Los Angeles Times October 26, 2017 18:45 UTC