Movie Review: Powerful 'Doubt' leaves viewers thinking

"Doubt"

Directed by: John Patrick Shanley

Starring: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Joseph Foster, Viola Davis

Rated: PG-13

"It's an old tactic of cruel people to kill kindness in the name of virtue."

So says Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) at one of the many critical moments in writer/director John Patrick Shanley's gripping new drama, "Doubt."

It's 1964, and Father Flynn is a priest at the St. Nicholas Church School in the Bronx. The school serves a population of Irish and Italian students but has one new boy, an African American named Donald (Joseph Foster). The school's headmistress, the rather staunch Sister Aloysius Bouvier (Meryl Streep), worries that fights will ensue. Soon she must confront a problem of a different nature.

The young nun, Sister James (Amy Adams) reports to Sister Aloysius that Donald has found a protector. It seems Father Flynn has taken the boy under his wing, going so far as having a private meeting with him in the rectory. Sister James is concerned because when the boy came back to class he had alcohol on his breath. I'd urge the viewer to refrain from jumping to any conclusions. Sister Aloysius - who mistrusts transistor radios, ball point pens, people who take sugar in their tea and believes "Frosty the Snowman" is an evil, pagan anthem - tells Sister James that they must take matters into their own hands. She believes the powers that be in the church hierarchy will turn a blind eye. One thing she never mentions is making an attempt to find the truth at the heart of the situation. Father Flynn is already guilty in her eyes. Now it's just a matter of an appropriate punishment.

The showcase scene in act two is a meeting between Sister Aloysius and Donald's mother, played by Viola Davis. The nun tells her that she suspects that something inappropriate might have happened between Donald and Father Flynn. Rather than becoming hysterical or threatening a lawsuit, his mother is incredibly pragmatic. She tells Sister Aloysius that public school was killing the boy and she wants her son to finish high school at St. Nicholas so he'll have a better chance of getting into a good college. She also recounts how her husband doesn't love the boy and in fact beats him on a regular basis. She thinks that a strong role model, like Father Flynn, can only be good for the child. It's a powerful scene culminating in the nun telling Donald's mother she will have her son thrown out of school for the incident where it was found the boy had drunk sacramental wine, even if, as she suspects, Father Flynn gave it to him.

Act three is a toe-to-toe battle of wills between Father Flynn and Sister Aloysius. She, like the accusers in the Salem witch trials, is so absolutely certain of her moral superiority that she will not be swayed by anything the priest says. For his part, Father Flynn will not sink to her level and defend himself for something that there is no hard evidence ever took place.

Flynn bids the parish farewell in a heartfelt sermon and the good Sister wins the battle, at least in her mind.

Shanley adapted the screenplay from his own Pulitzer Prize- and Tony-winning Broadway play and paints the main characters with a fine brush. Streep in particular embodies her role so much that the viewer will forget it's not really a self-righteous nun beneath the black habit.

Shanley also chooses not to tie everything up neatly and, indeed, it will be up to each viewer to decide for himself if there was any impropriety on Father Flynn's part.

"Doubt" is a powerful film that provides a lot of food for thought, especially in this age where priests have come under a lot more scrutiny than they were subject to in the past.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield freelance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.