REVIEW: Doubt (2008)

Doubt

Rated: R

Runtime: 104 minutes

Starring: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams

My rating: 4 stars

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Doubt is one of those movies you think about for a while. As more and more people you know see it, you start asking, “What did you think?”

No matter what they say, your response is, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you know what I think....”

This film is a power struggle between Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) and Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Flynn wants to bring change to the church and be more friendly to the outside world. Aloysius doesn't like that kids use ballpoint pens because it makes them press down, ruining their penmanship. She, clearly, does not like change.

We first meet Aloysius during Father Flynn's first sermon in the film. We don't see her face, we see the robe, the cross and folded hands as she paces the church aisle making sure each kid is attentive. She needn't use a word, her presence is enough to make the kids quiet. We don't see her face until she approaches a boy sleeping in church. She bends down, back stiff, rotates her head and demands, “Straighten up.” I was so scared, I sat up, too.

Aloysius is robotic. She likes order; she's strict, and is the mentor for Sister James (Amy Adams), the most human of all the characters. James is stuck between wanting change and not upsetting her superiors. Aloysius just wants things to stay the same, so at the first opportunity to get rid of Flynn, she jumps.

The only black student, Donald Miller, is called into the rectory with Father Flynn alone. After some time, Sister James witnesses Father Flynn placing an undershirt in Donald's locker. Later, Sister James says Donald was different in class and had alcohol on his breath.

Aloysius has no doubt it's because Flynn made inappropriate advances. Then it turns into a mystery. Will Aloysius discover something real based on her assumptions or will she fail, ending her career?

Whenever Aloysius is about to go on a crusade against Father Flynn, writer-director John Patrick Shanley changes his camera angle. He points it up at her and slightly askew, presenting her as the evil character. Meanwhile, Father Flynn is always straight and clean, no demonic portrayal.

It makes the audience root for Father Flynn. Aloysius is so mean and manipulative. She just wants him gone and won't stop until she gets it. It doesn't matter that she has no real evidence suggesting he inappropriately touched Donald. This doesn't stop her from telling Donald's mother, Mrs. Miller (Viola Davis).

Davis is only in one scene, yet it is so powerful she was nominated for an Oscar. She's a confused and troubled mother, married to an abusive husband with a son no one seems to like, except Father Flynn. Mrs. Miller chooses not to pursue actions against Father Flynn when Aloysius says she believes he abused her son. The scene unfolds and we see the deep struggle inside Mrs. Miller. She's lost herself.

Doubt is set in 1964. McCarthyism wasn't that much prior and John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. The witch hunt to exterminate the bad guys is still very prevalent. Suspicions often overruled reason.

Sister Aloysius doesn't show her human side in her face, but through her actions we see the truest human flaw: believing hunches to be facts. We all, at times, see what we want to see or convince ourselves a belief is true. That also applies to religion in general. It's very formed and strict, but at its core it's accepting a belief as fact.

Sister Aloysius' beliefs about Father Flynn aren't necessarily wrong, but she has convinced herself that she is right. We see her as an insane woman hungry for power. Father Flynn calls her a dragon behind her back early in the film. She won't relent until she gets her way.

There is no real resolution to this movie. It exists to create discussion. Audience members can discuss religion, priest-child relationships, mother-son relationships, what's really going on with Aloysius, and of course, did Father Flynn actually do it?

No matter to whom you talk, their answers and reasoning won't be same as yours. Doubt succeeds at making us think. It makes us believe our own assumptions about the characters in an attempt to understand the film.

There aren't right or wrong answers about the movie, there's just discourse. Can you convince the person next to you that you're correct? We become Sister Aloysius – believing our own lies and stopping at nothing to convince everyone around us they're facts. Four stars.

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Where it's playing?

Only in Canton: Click here for current listings.

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