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Marc M This is my third attempt to post a review. I used to work for this Episcopalian monastery as a landscape laborer so I am biased to a very great extent. Also when I worked there I was a Roman Catholic and a burnt out parochial school teacher so I was considered to be a smart ass not to mention a drunkard and a malcontent by the abbot and the novice master, in particular. But I would like to settle one point raised in the film which was that Brother Wilfred was somehow "difficult". In reality Brother Wilfred was, at least in my experience, the easiest member of the community to get along with, as well as Brother James, who has no lines in the film. So if the film seems somehow off to the viewer it could be because of this being an Anglican foundation as opposed to a Catholic one. The telltale clue would be their invocation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, even if Saint Gregory was the pope who first sent missionaries to the British isles. But I did find the film intriguing, seeing a how it shows these men when they were fifteen years younger than when I knew them. The entire juniorate in the movie all left before taking life vows. That was no great loss as without exception they seem to suffer greatly from preciousness, as has also been observed for instance an Orthodox monk I once spoke with about this film. And yes, the Episcopal church also has nuns. I've also met both Episcopal nuns and monks at the much larger and architecturally impressive Cowley Father's monastery on the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts where their stone structures were designed by Ralph Adams Cram who was also involved in the design of the imposing cathedral church of St. John the Divine in New York City on Amsterdam, Avenue. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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