CHRISTIANITY & HOLLYWOOD
copyright Linda Napier (aka Linda Alexander) 9/1992
Rejoice! Maybe there is hope for Hollywood yet. This sudden realization came to me in the most surprising of forms--actress Whoopi Goldberg--after I saw SISTER ACT.
Right off the bat, I'll say that there is some offensive language, early on there's the allusion of an illicit affair between Goldberg's character and her paramour, without any actual sexual depictions. There's also a murder, with minimal graphics. However, all these factors fit tightly into the film's scenario of a Las Vegas lounge singer who witnesses a murder and then is put into police protection in the most unlikely of places . . . a Catholic nunnery. Goldberg's character is forced to take on the guise of a nun, living with them, working with them, and, to the best of her un-Spirited nature, conforming to a spiritual existence such as the nuns live.
Here it suffices to say that she eventually manages to get with the program in her own fashion. Maybe a third of the way through, as she fights the system with all her being, Mother Superior says something like, "You had no life. You had no success as a lounge singer, and your married lover is trying to have you killed. God put you here. It's time to pay attention."
And she slowly does begin to pay attention. When danger arises and her hideaway is discovered by the bad guys, Goldberg's character refuses to buckle under pressure. She has been appointed choir director and  her choir is scheduled to perform for the Pope. When she's captured, she peacefully quotes spiritual platitudes to her tormentors, while never losing the spunk which is innately her own.
This movie has many lessons for the open-minded viewer. To me, the nuns and the church to which they were connected signified the Christian neighborhood in general--believing, yet without joy, caught up in a myopic view of what it is to serve Christ in day-to-day living. They had no inner spirit; the idea of actually enjoying one's faith was foreign.
Yet as Goldberg's character was infused with the Spirit of God through the nuns, the nuns were infused with the vibrancy of God through her  presence. She taught them to live their faith with joy, and to share their faith with the outside world, as well as those in their own world.
I was delighted with the music. By film's end, the choir was singing, to the tune of the sixties hit, "My Guy." ". . . Nothing you can say can take me away from my God. Nothing you can do, 'cause I'm stuck like glue to my God. . . ."
This is a feel-good story. I would take my childrento see it and I feel pre-teens will appreciate the message as well as the entertainment value.