Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt
A Powerful Display of Great Acting With A Terrific, Layered Script
The 2008 film Doubt was up for several Academy Award Oscars in 2009. Originally a successful play in New York, the playwright John Patrick Shanley adapted it for the screen, for an Oscar nomination, and directed it, flawlessly. He had terrific help with the cast of Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis. All four actors were nominated for Oscars!
Setting and Plot
The time is 1964, a time of change and upheaval. The place is The Bronx in New York City. The setting is a small Catholic secondary school, it's church and rectory, and the nuns' convent. Just enough scenes in the courtyard, on the nearby streets, different internal locations, while showing the external influences of weather transform the play into a movie.
But the play is the thing! The plot tension is based on the arrival of a new pastor, Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) whom the head nun Sister Aloysius begins to strongly suspect is a practicing pedophile. The suspicions are based on observations of Father Flynn with the only black boy, in a somewhat racially tense environment, who was shy and timid, a bit of a loner who needed paternal protection and affection.
Which is what Father Flynn was offering, perhaps to an extreme. A younger more reasonable nun, Sister James, played by Amy Adams, also made some observations and reports to Sister Aloysius. Sister Aloysius is portrayed magnificently by Meryl Streep as the quintessential mean spirited nun.
She is not just mean, however. She is saddled with an ability to see through others' motives in a world that prefers to overlook them. Though she is strict and severe with young boys who pull ploys to get of class, she shows compassion to the elderly nuns in the convent who are ailing and is fair to others.
There Are Surprises
So as the plot evolves and Sister Aloysius plays games with Father Flynn to trap him into the truth, Sister James vacillates between suspicion and forgiveness and back again. She is reprimanded by Sister Aloysius of just wanting everything to be fine and not pursuing the truth of the matter. The back and forth of this game is the plot device that is relentless and leaves virtually everyone in suspense, and doubt!
Right around the plot point entering into the third act comes the boy's mother, Mrs. Miller, in a walk around the neighborhood discussion with Sister Aloysius. This is Viola Davis's entrance into the film. Contrasting Viola out of character with her as Mrs. Miller affirms her acting ability. Her 12 minute cameo got her an Oscar nomination. Information is disclosed in this conversation that creates even more tension and suspicions, and doubt!
Resolution?
There is no obvious firm resolution for the movie. Some found that dissatisfying even while admiring the film. Most look at the film as an example of intolerance in the face of progressive thinking. Easy to do with someone as hard core and old fashioned as Sister Aloysius.
It's common to assume that a stern personality without social graces is bound to be wrong with most convictions. But is that really the case with Sister Aloysius? Or does she really have the “Casandra Complex” of seeing the truth that others refuse to admit?
The last scene convinced many viewers that Sister Aloysius was having doubts about her conviction of Father Flynn's guilt. But there were other circumstances that could lead one to believe she was having doubts about the Church itself!
Doubt ends with doubt, but the viewing is well worth it. It's a 10.
Looking Grim
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