Changing Habits (1997)

I have liked Maura Tierney ever since seeing her in Primary Colors. In Changing Habits, an earlier starring venue, she plays Soosh, a cute, complex, and brash young woman who shoplifts to save for life goals we gradually discover. Though often testy and untrusting, she gradually rehabilitates herself through the ministrations of love interest Felix (Dylan Walsh) and the Mother Superior (Eileen Brennan) at the convent she scams for cheap room and board. For spirituality, Changing Habits is more like Diary of a City Priest than Sister Act. As a lifelong Catholic, I found its representation of guest lodging in a convent to be largely realistic -- I don't think the handful of salty words would have been allowed even though Soosh is the kind of woman who does whatever the hell she wants -- and the Mother Superior was both practical and supportive in her pastoral attentions. In the convent, Soosh finds a safe place where she can express her personal (Kahloesque) artistic vision as the daughter of a complex and alcoholic painter (Christopher Lloyd). The balance of the movie rewardingly reveals additional layers as it uncovers greater complexities to her life than Soosh knew or expected (beginning with how she came to be named Soosh). I like Changing Habits better than Wide Awake and even Chances Are. Teri Garr has a quirky role as Soosh's boutique shop manager and Shelley Duvall has an even quirkier role as a nun who rarely speaks. I rented this movie from a competing service because it has long been a Save title here but I see it has come in stock this week. 4 stars.