Doubt takes place in the tumultuous time period of 1964, and surrounds the events that unfold when a nun suspects the priest of having an improper relationship with an alienated young black boy who has come to the school. As the principal, Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) runs the St. Nicholas School in the Bronx with an iron fist. She believes nuns and priests are to be feared by the children they teach and feared she is. Sister James (Amy Adams), however, takes a different point of view and prefers to impart knowledge using love and kindness rather than fear and cruelty. Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) feels much the same way as Sister James and believes that Sister Aloysius is holding the school back with her archaic point of view. He hopes to usher the school into modern times, despite Sister Aloysius. To that end, he has taken the school's one black student, Donald Miller (Joseph Foster), under his wing as an alter boy, and is showing him special attention even as the other children pick on him.
Sister Aloysius's radar goes on red alert and she immediately suspects Father Flynn of impropriety, and Sister James has seen a few things that give her pause as well. When the two compare notes, Sister Aloysius goes on a one-woman crusade to get to the bottom of the matter, regardless of who gets hurt along the way. In her voyage for discovery, she comes into knowledge she wishes she hadn't, and the lives of those caught in the fray will be forever changed. What is certain throughout the film is that everyone concerned is plagued with doubt, whether it be of others, of their faith, or of themselves.
I am being intentionally vague because much of the film remains under a shadow of mystery and that's the way it should be, so I certainly don't want to give away any spoilers here. I must say that I was left with a feeling that things hadn't completely resolved by the end of the film, but again, I believe that was intentional of the part of the filmmakers - they wanted you to walk out of the theater or turn off your TV and then think about the film and discuss it.
The primary players in this film are absolutely brilliant. Meryl Streep is a fantastic actress and I love her in almost everything I have ever seen her in, but she is simply withering as Sister Aloysius. I went to Catholic school as a child and I really don't remember any mean nuns, but my mom tells me stories of kneeling on rice and rulers slapping across knuckles and Streep portrays that type of nun. A no-nonsense matriarch who would just as soon box your ears as look at you. In high contrast, Amy Adams simply exudes innocence and kindness and even as she begins to suspect Father Flynn of things she'd rather not think of, her first response is to accept him at his word because she can't fathom the kind of evil Sister Aloysius is proposing. Just as Streep and Adams are stellar in their roles, Hoffman never ceases to amaze me. As he delivers his sermons from the pulpit, you feel as though he is talking right to you. He's just absolutely brilliant. Of special note is Viola Davis who plays the boy's mother, Mrs. Miller. Although she doesn't have nearly the screen time as the other players, she is completely believable and really good. I could have done without the running nose while she was crying a la Blair Witch Project, but otherwise, she was great.
I really enjoyed the imagery in Doubt. Everything was so cold, stark and bleary, but then there were the occasional splashes of brilliant color such as the vivid green walls in Sister Aloysius' office or the robin's egg blue of another room in the church. It was almost as if the colors of the room were meant to punctuate the discussions going on there. My favorite visual in the entire film is the feather scene, which takes place during one of Father Flynn's sermons. Perfect.
There aren't a ton of special features, but I really enjoyed what was there. There's a featurette on the adaptation of the play to the film and one where the cast talks about making the film. Both of these clock in around 20 minutes each and are well worth watching. There's one of the musical scoring of the film and one on the Sisters of Charity, which I really loved. In it, several actual Sisters of Charity speak about the changes that occurred in the Church around the time the movie takes place and it was fantastic to see the nun who inspired the film, the real Sister James. There's also audio commentary by John Patrick Shanley.
If you go into Doubt expecting an expose of the seedy underbelly of the Catholic Church, you will be sorely disappointed. However, if you go into the film expecting to see superior acting, deep character development, and terse conversations plus some serious mind games played out between formidable adversaries, you will be pleased.
