Film Reviews

No Greater Love

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• Details: UK / 100mins (TBC).

This review will save those contemplating going to see this a lot of time and money - if you think life inside a monastery where the inhabitants only speak for an hour or so a day would be boring, and a documentary on that very subject would be even worse, then it doesn't take a stretch of the imagination to envisage the mind-numbing 100 minutes that is No Greater Love.
The Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity, Notting Hill, London, houses Carmelite Nuns who rarely leave but for a trip to the dentist or doctor (shopping is done online). Silence is observed throughout the day but for two periods of recreation - there's no TV, radio or newspapers; these nuns are in total isolation from the outside world. Michael Whyte's camera floats down the corridors and through the rooms of the monastery in an unprecedented peek into this world, stopping off to interview those willing to talk during their brief respites from contemplation and prayer.
While watching No Greater Love one question would leave my mind - what's the point of all this? What is the point in both the documentary and its subject's lives? These nuns serve God by spending twenty-four hours a day locked up - what good are they doing? What difference are they making? Surely their service to God would be better put to use if they opened a soup kitchen or offered some spiritual guidance to those in need. Unfortunately director Michael Whyte doesn't pursue this line of questioning in his interviews, which are dotted sporadically between long shots of empty corridors, nuns gardening, praying and ringing bells. Whyte does pose some interesting questions, though, asking the nuns do they fear death and what they are getting out of this way of life. One nun answers that it forces her "to come face-to-face with yourself," while another doesn't fear death but there's a certain trepidation that 'the atheists were right'. Whyte doesn't follow up on these answers - it's back to more shots of empty corridors, etc.
The director marvels at the peaceful solitude of the life. But of course these people are peaceful; locked away in that cocoon, their belief system is never challenged - they've chosen to spend their lives giving thanks for a world they take no part in. No Greater Love is a slow-moving documentary that has nothing to say or offer. Do something else with your time.

Review by Gavin Burke