Monday At the Movies: Doubt

(Disclosure: I rented the movie through Netflix.)

Doubt
(Drama, Mystery - 2008; rated: PG-13; directed & written by John Patrick Shanley)

Netflix Summary:

In this Oscar-nominated adaptation of John Patrick Shanley's Tony-winning play, Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) begins to have doubts about doting priest Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who seems to have become overly involved in the life of a young African American pupil. But Flynn isn't the only one she doubts. Is she overreacting to the situation, or is there truth behind her convictions?

I'm afraid I am writing this review weeks after having seen the movie. So much of it has faded into the shadows of my memory. So forgive me for not going into it more deeply.

A priest befriends a black student, the only one in the school. Is the priest's attention an effort to ease the boy's transition into a somewhat hostile environment or is there something more there? Sister Aloysius believes there is. Her suspicions only grow the more she observes and learns about Father Flynn. Why did he leave his last perish? Why was he holding the boy's shirt and returning it to the boy's locker? And what about the other boy in the school, the one who flinches and acts out whenever Father Flynn is around?

Amy Adams' character, a young nun, is plagued by her own doubts. On the one hand, Sister Aloysius' makes a convincing argument. But then, so does Father Flynn. Is he being singled out by an overly paranoid nun?

Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman give amazing performances--emotional and thoughtful. Even so, I do wish the movie had gone a little farther, delved a little deeper. The movie itself is thought provoking, leaving in its wake many questions. I never doubted that Sister Aloysius believed Father Flynn was molesting the boy. And yet it was hard to believe that Father Flynn had done anything wrong. He was equally as convincing. The boy himself did not disclose any abuse. In actuality, Father Flynn was a much more likable character than his accuser, and I found myself wanting to believe his side over hers. And yet. There was always that doubt. Could I ever really be sure? There was that other boy to consider, the one no one really addressed . . . And sometimes the most charming and genuine-seeming people are the most dangerous. The evidence the sister was collecting against him, however, was really rather flimsy--and could have been completely innocent.

The title of the movie is quite fitting as not only are the characters full of doubt, of each other and even themselves, but it leaves the viewer just as much in doubt. At least it did this movie viewer.

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