Black Narcissus is Rumer Godden's story of a group of nuns isolated in the Himalayas, trying to set up a school in an old house of Harem. There is very little to distract them apart from the history of the house itself and the agent of the Indian general who only lives down the hill. Godden's 1939 tale which was made famous by the 1947 film starring Deborah Kerr has been remade into a three-part series.
Gemma Arteton takes on Kerr's role as Sister Clodagh who is the youngest sister superior the Anglican convent has ever had. It is Sister Clodagh who is the driving force behind the move to the mountains and to create a school there. Sister Clodagh is full of pride and this is something in which we keep coming back to in the three episodes, her pride is her downfall. Hence other sisters are sent with Clodagh to the mountains to keep her in check while helping her in her mission. Arteton does well with what she has been given, it isn't a standout role for Arteton but she does well. Her performance is good, she conveys her characters' struggle with her pride and heartbreak but it isn't as interesting to watch as it should.
In one of her last roles before her passing this year, we see Diana Rigg in the part of mother superior. Mother superior can sense trouble with the mission and is very cautious about the whole thing, she has reservations about Clodagh.
Once the sisters get to their new home they are greeted by the spooky caretaker who we learn use to serve the princess who we see threw herself off her home 20 years ago. Throughout we are greeted with many flashbacks to the princess who killed herself and how she felt in her house. The princess isn't the only flashbacks we are given, whenever Sister Clodagh has a moment alone, her mind is flooded of memories between herself and a mystery man. It is clear that she should 1) not be having these memories and 2) these memories cause her heartache. It is clear something happened between these two and we get a bit of an insight in the final episode of this miniseries, when Clodagh decides to open up. The flashbacks work well to keep us engaged in what is happening and also makes us question what has happened here before and more importantly why has it happened.
Sister Ruth played by Aisling Franciosi is the character to watch, she is one who really shows the strain of this new home. However, it isn’t made clear why this is happening now or what is causing this. Ruth is probably the most interesting character to watch over the whole three episodes. Franciosi puts on a great performance throughout all three episodes and her outburst in the final episode is delivered so well and works perfectly. There is a relationship between Clodagh and Ruth, a mentor and mentee relationship. This relationship quickly goes downhill as Clodagh doesn’t want it but attempts but it just doesn’t work.
The other nuns that join Clodagh and Ruth are jolly Briony played by Rosie Cavaliero, green-fingered Philippa played by Karen Bryson and sweet Blanche played by Patsy Ferran. All these nuns are so different yet it is understandable why they were all chosen for this mission.
Mr Dean (Alessandro Nivola) helps the sisters and warns them from intervening too much. Mr Dean is a very mysterious man and we don't really learn that much about him, except he may feelings for one of our nuns.
In three episodes you expect a lot of happen but honestly these three episodes are slow. Even once the credits role on the final episode, you aren't certain if what you watched was actually interesting or entertaining. The sisters are fighting their own demons in their minds, Sister Ruth suffers the most and then after what happens in the final episode, they leave. We are left questioning what we watched and should it have been three episodes. The second episode was the weakest of the three, nothing really happened, we presume it was building up for an exciting final episode yet it didn’t deliver.
With that being said, the characters are interesting and the performances are good but the locations and set is beautiful. It has all the ingredients for a great series, the sets are beautiful yet it may be surprising to know that unlike the film, these episodes were shot in the UK.
Overall, why was this remake better than the film? Is it really worth a watch? This is something different to watch but it feels a bit anticlimactic once the credits role. The performances were good but the overall story was slow, really slow and you leave wondering why the events happened. We need to be given more information so the story makes sense yet we are left wondering what we have watched.
