“Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty. When you are lost, you are not alone.”
-Opening dialogue from “Doubt”
“They say in this town, you’re innocent until you’re investigated.”
-Christopher Plummer in “Syriana”
“Doubt,” based on the Pulitzer Prize winning play written by John Patrick Shanley, is a story where the answers to a tense situation are nowhere as important as the questions it brings up. Like all great plays, it is a thought provoking exercise in what we believe versus what actually happens. Many may come out of it frustrated because it is not your typical Hollywood movie where everything is tidy and neat at its conclusion, but hopefully more will be enthralled by what they make of all that has gone on before them. It’s a story which forces you to consider how you would have acted under similar circumstances in this situation. I can see why the play won the Pulitzer Prize back in 2005, and now it has been made into a superb movie by the playwright himself.
“Doubt” follows the goings on at the St. Nicholas Catholic school in the Bronx back in 1964. Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep) becomes concerned that Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) may have developed an unhealthy relationship with the school’s sole black student, Donald Muller (Joseph Foster). This is brought to her attention when Sister James (Amy Adams) notices Donald acting strangely after he has been in the private company of Father Flynn, and she also mentions that she smelled alcohol on Donald’s breath. Sister Aloysius is convinced of Father Flynn’s guilt even though she has no real proof, but he denies any wrongdoing on his part. From thereon out, it becomes a battle between Aloysius and Flynn, and the battle involves not just the accusations, but the state of the school and its students as well.
The fascinating thing about “Doubt” is that the story itself is simple, but the characters and the situations they get caught up in are very complex. As the fight goes on between the characters played by Streep and Hoffman, you start to wonder if the conflict doesn’t involve any specific student as it does the direction things are going in, and the threat of change that frightens people into defending what they believe to be their domain. Sister Aloysius represents the old guard and of the way things have always been. Father Flynn, on the other hand, represents the big shakeup of change that many resist. When he suggests to Sister Aloysius that they need to be nicer to the students, she takes it as some kind of insult. You can’t help but wonder if the fight between these two is motivated more by a power struggle then by what actually happened between the priest and the altar boy.
To watch Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman face off with each other is to watch a master class in acting, let alone film acting. God only knows how hard these parts were to play for the both of them, but being that these are some of the very best actors working today; you come into this movie knowing that they are more than up to the challenge. It’s not just the delivery of Shanley’s dialogue that they have to work at; it’s also what they show in their eyes. The eyes are the window to the soul, but we are never quite sure what to make of the state of these two people and their souls. I’m sure that these two actors have thought their roles out in this production through and through, and they do seem to have history for their characters that they do not fully reveal to the audience. This is not to say that they should, but it makes their journey all the more enthralling as we are not sure to make of who they really are.
Meryl Streep has given us an immense volume of great performances in which she has created characters so memorable that they forever themselves into your consciousness. Sister Aloysius Beauvier is another character she can rack up with the rest of her brilliant performances. Her character’s introduction in the movie is brilliant as we see her from the back of her head as she gets the young children to pay full attention to Father Flynn’s sermon. Without even seeing her face right away, she quickly makes an impact as a strong and frightening authority figure to both the students and the nuns who are under her tutelage. Meryl’s performance will quickly bring back memories of all those awful teachers you had and which you hate to this very day. She’s the kind of teacher where everything she says is right, and everything the students say is wrong. I hated teachers like that! Hated them!
Most people would never want to come across as serious or as cold as Sister Aloysius, but some do find a power in it. Sister Aloysius knows that she is feared more than she is loved, and she revels in that fact because it makes everyone heed to her when needs be. There are instances where she does not need to say a word in order to be heard or obeyed to. Just watch the scene where Sister James takes a piece of meat out of her that she can’t quite chew. Streep’s stern glare makes her rethink what she just did. As the movie goes on, it’s almost like she is furiously trying to maintain the fear mongering power she has more than anything else.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, as always, is brilliant here and every bit the match of Ms. Streep. We keep waiting to see if there will be a slip where all will be revealed, but Hoffman keeps his cards very close to his chest. His explanations for the private meeting between him and Donald are not implausible, but Sister Aloysius remains unconvinced. Hoffman is great at how just the simple feeling of doubt can easily destroy a person to where it doesn’t matter if he is innocent or guilty. His fight to prove his innocence threatens to bring the worst out of him, and it’s like he continues to sink deeper into a hole that he is desperately trying to climb out of. His character also represents a wave of change in that he feels that the priests and nuns need to be nicer to the children they teach, and to make their parents see them as part of their family.
Along for the morally complex ride is “Enchanted’s” Amy Adams who plays Sister James, and her character is essentially stuck in the middle between these two warring factions. I wonder if there is another actress today who can exude the amount of genuine kindness and sincerity than Amy Adams right now. She shows the love her character has for her job as a history teacher at the school ever so perfectly, and Adams also shows the desperation her character exudes in search of absolutely certainty. Her character is the first to suspect that Father Flynn is up to no good when she sees him put an undershirt worn by Donald in his locker, but she knows that it does not prove anything. At times, Sister James seems rather naïve when it comes to how people act around each other, but in many ways she is the most morally grounded of the three main characters. She never loses her sense of right and wrong, while Streep and Hoffman’s characters threaten to in pursuit of wrongdoing.
There is also a fantastic supporting performance from Viola Davis who plays Donald’s mother. She shares a tense scene with Meryl Streep as she walks Viola to her job and talks with her about her suspicions. Mrs. Miller likes the fact that Father Flynn has been so nice to her son because she reveals that his father beats him severely when he misbehaves. When Sister Aloysius confides her suspicions to Mrs. Miller, it doesn’t change the level of worry for her son’s welfare as it is already extremely high. She fears more about what Donald’s father will do to him if this proves to be true than she does of what Father Flynn might be doing if the allegations prove to be true. With only ten to twenty minutes of screen time, Viola does a brilliant job of making you feel her character’s heartbreaking dilemma, and of how she has been with left little choice over how to resolve this potentially unhealthy situation that she has just been made aware of even though no real proof is presented. It’s one thing for an actor to show what their character is going through, but it is quite another for them to make you feel what their character is going through.
It’s a surprise to see that this is the first movie John Patrick Shanley has directed since “Joe Versus The Volcano,” and that was made back in 1990. His direction is simplistic in that he does not get overly technical with the camera. He does throw in a few Dutch angles to show the imbalance of the situation and of where the power between the characters is shifting. Other than that, his direction is pretty basic, and that’s fine because this is a piece that needs someone who understands acting. This is a film where acting really needs to win out over everything else because with a great script like this, it won’t succeed if not given the attention it needs. Shanley, along with cinematographer Roger Deakins, does a great job of capturing the beauty of the Bronx as it approaches wintertime, and he expertly captures the time period in which the movie takes place.
I have not seen the play version of “Doubt,” but I feel pretty certain that is a very faithful adaptation of the play to the big screen. My parents have had the opportunity to see this on stage in New York, and they cannot stop raving about Cherry Jones who had Streep’s part in its Broadway run. Suffice to say, it is a compelling story in either format. Like David Mamet’s “Oleanna,” it provokes a lot of discussion and has thinking about it endlessly (granted, the discussions over “Oleanna” were a hell of a lot more heated). I like movies like this that really make you think and the fact that it makes a large portion of its audience uncomfortable. Many movies released today are like your typical fast food meal that goes in and out with little residue. They don’t stay in the mind for very long after you have watched them. How nice it is to see that “Doubt” is not one of those movies.
What makes the story of “Doubt” so compelling is the nature of doubt itself. The law that a man is innocent until proven guilty gets more and more meaningless with the passage of time. We make sport of presuming a person’s guilt or innocent as soon as we get word of what has transpired, and escaping that doubt seems to be all the more impossible. An accusation can be everlasting long after the case has long been closed, and the accused may end up living with that cloud of doubt over the heads for the rest of their existence. It can be a stigma that can change your life for the worst in an instant. But at the same time, what this all say about those who are doing the accusing? Surely they are not free of sin like anybody else.
With “Doubt,” Shanley brilliantly shows how the state of doubt affects everyone equally. No one comes out of this the same whether they stay or leave the church. There are no clear answers here, and what we are left with is an unsettling feeling of how unsure we are. Everyone is harmed deeply by doubt here, and it binds the main characters here as strongly as it tears them apart. You have to feel for those caught in its ugly wake because they end up having to live with something that they did not necessarily bring on themselves. It’s a brilliant play that has been made into a great movie filled with outstanding performances. There will be nominations for some of the performances here, and of that I have no doubt.
**** out of ****
-Opening dialogue from “Doubt”
“They say in this town, you’re innocent until you’re investigated.”
-Christopher Plummer in “Syriana”
“Doubt,” based on the Pulitzer Prize winning play written by John Patrick Shanley, is a story where the answers to a tense situation are nowhere as important as the questions it brings up. Like all great plays, it is a thought provoking exercise in what we believe versus what actually happens. Many may come out of it frustrated because it is not your typical Hollywood movie where everything is tidy and neat at its conclusion, but hopefully more will be enthralled by what they make of all that has gone on before them. It’s a story which forces you to consider how you would have acted under similar circumstances in this situation. I can see why the play won the Pulitzer Prize back in 2005, and now it has been made into a superb movie by the playwright himself.
“Doubt” follows the goings on at the St. Nicholas Catholic school in the Bronx back in 1964. Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep) becomes concerned that Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) may have developed an unhealthy relationship with the school’s sole black student, Donald Muller (Joseph Foster). This is brought to her attention when Sister James (Amy Adams) notices Donald acting strangely after he has been in the private company of Father Flynn, and she also mentions that she smelled alcohol on Donald’s breath. Sister Aloysius is convinced of Father Flynn’s guilt even though she has no real proof, but he denies any wrongdoing on his part. From thereon out, it becomes a battle between Aloysius and Flynn, and the battle involves not just the accusations, but the state of the school and its students as well.
The fascinating thing about “Doubt” is that the story itself is simple, but the characters and the situations they get caught up in are very complex. As the fight goes on between the characters played by Streep and Hoffman, you start to wonder if the conflict doesn’t involve any specific student as it does the direction things are going in, and the threat of change that frightens people into defending what they believe to be their domain. Sister Aloysius represents the old guard and of the way things have always been. Father Flynn, on the other hand, represents the big shakeup of change that many resist. When he suggests to Sister Aloysius that they need to be nicer to the students, she takes it as some kind of insult. You can’t help but wonder if the fight between these two is motivated more by a power struggle then by what actually happened between the priest and the altar boy.
To watch Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman face off with each other is to watch a master class in acting, let alone film acting. God only knows how hard these parts were to play for the both of them, but being that these are some of the very best actors working today; you come into this movie knowing that they are more than up to the challenge. It’s not just the delivery of Shanley’s dialogue that they have to work at; it’s also what they show in their eyes. The eyes are the window to the soul, but we are never quite sure what to make of the state of these two people and their souls. I’m sure that these two actors have thought their roles out in this production through and through, and they do seem to have history for their characters that they do not fully reveal to the audience. This is not to say that they should, but it makes their journey all the more enthralling as we are not sure to make of who they really are.
Meryl Streep has given us an immense volume of great performances in which she has created characters so memorable that they forever themselves into your consciousness. Sister Aloysius Beauvier is another character she can rack up with the rest of her brilliant performances. Her character’s introduction in the movie is brilliant as we see her from the back of her head as she gets the young children to pay full attention to Father Flynn’s sermon. Without even seeing her face right away, she quickly makes an impact as a strong and frightening authority figure to both the students and the nuns who are under her tutelage. Meryl’s performance will quickly bring back memories of all those awful teachers you had and which you hate to this very day. She’s the kind of teacher where everything she says is right, and everything the students say is wrong. I hated teachers like that! Hated them!
Most people would never want to come across as serious or as cold as Sister Aloysius, but some do find a power in it. Sister Aloysius knows that she is feared more than she is loved, and she revels in that fact because it makes everyone heed to her when needs be. There are instances where she does not need to say a word in order to be heard or obeyed to. Just watch the scene where Sister James takes a piece of meat out of her that she can’t quite chew. Streep’s stern glare makes her rethink what she just did. As the movie goes on, it’s almost like she is furiously trying to maintain the fear mongering power she has more than anything else.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, as always, is brilliant here and every bit the match of Ms. Streep. We keep waiting to see if there will be a slip where all will be revealed, but Hoffman keeps his cards very close to his chest. His explanations for the private meeting between him and Donald are not implausible, but Sister Aloysius remains unconvinced. Hoffman is great at how just the simple feeling of doubt can easily destroy a person to where it doesn’t matter if he is innocent or guilty. His fight to prove his innocence threatens to bring the worst out of him, and it’s like he continues to sink deeper into a hole that he is desperately trying to climb out of. His character also represents a wave of change in that he feels that the priests and nuns need to be nicer to the children they teach, and to make their parents see them as part of their family.
Along for the morally complex ride is “Enchanted’s” Amy Adams who plays Sister James, and her character is essentially stuck in the middle between these two warring factions. I wonder if there is another actress today who can exude the amount of genuine kindness and sincerity than Amy Adams right now. She shows the love her character has for her job as a history teacher at the school ever so perfectly, and Adams also shows the desperation her character exudes in search of absolutely certainty. Her character is the first to suspect that Father Flynn is up to no good when she sees him put an undershirt worn by Donald in his locker, but she knows that it does not prove anything. At times, Sister James seems rather naïve when it comes to how people act around each other, but in many ways she is the most morally grounded of the three main characters. She never loses her sense of right and wrong, while Streep and Hoffman’s characters threaten to in pursuit of wrongdoing.
There is also a fantastic supporting performance from Viola Davis who plays Donald’s mother. She shares a tense scene with Meryl Streep as she walks Viola to her job and talks with her about her suspicions. Mrs. Miller likes the fact that Father Flynn has been so nice to her son because she reveals that his father beats him severely when he misbehaves. When Sister Aloysius confides her suspicions to Mrs. Miller, it doesn’t change the level of worry for her son’s welfare as it is already extremely high. She fears more about what Donald’s father will do to him if this proves to be true than she does of what Father Flynn might be doing if the allegations prove to be true. With only ten to twenty minutes of screen time, Viola does a brilliant job of making you feel her character’s heartbreaking dilemma, and of how she has been with left little choice over how to resolve this potentially unhealthy situation that she has just been made aware of even though no real proof is presented. It’s one thing for an actor to show what their character is going through, but it is quite another for them to make you feel what their character is going through.
It’s a surprise to see that this is the first movie John Patrick Shanley has directed since “Joe Versus The Volcano,” and that was made back in 1990. His direction is simplistic in that he does not get overly technical with the camera. He does throw in a few Dutch angles to show the imbalance of the situation and of where the power between the characters is shifting. Other than that, his direction is pretty basic, and that’s fine because this is a piece that needs someone who understands acting. This is a film where acting really needs to win out over everything else because with a great script like this, it won’t succeed if not given the attention it needs. Shanley, along with cinematographer Roger Deakins, does a great job of capturing the beauty of the Bronx as it approaches wintertime, and he expertly captures the time period in which the movie takes place.
I have not seen the play version of “Doubt,” but I feel pretty certain that is a very faithful adaptation of the play to the big screen. My parents have had the opportunity to see this on stage in New York, and they cannot stop raving about Cherry Jones who had Streep’s part in its Broadway run. Suffice to say, it is a compelling story in either format. Like David Mamet’s “Oleanna,” it provokes a lot of discussion and has thinking about it endlessly (granted, the discussions over “Oleanna” were a hell of a lot more heated). I like movies like this that really make you think and the fact that it makes a large portion of its audience uncomfortable. Many movies released today are like your typical fast food meal that goes in and out with little residue. They don’t stay in the mind for very long after you have watched them. How nice it is to see that “Doubt” is not one of those movies.
What makes the story of “Doubt” so compelling is the nature of doubt itself. The law that a man is innocent until proven guilty gets more and more meaningless with the passage of time. We make sport of presuming a person’s guilt or innocent as soon as we get word of what has transpired, and escaping that doubt seems to be all the more impossible. An accusation can be everlasting long after the case has long been closed, and the accused may end up living with that cloud of doubt over the heads for the rest of their existence. It can be a stigma that can change your life for the worst in an instant. But at the same time, what this all say about those who are doing the accusing? Surely they are not free of sin like anybody else.
With “Doubt,” Shanley brilliantly shows how the state of doubt affects everyone equally. No one comes out of this the same whether they stay or leave the church. There are no clear answers here, and what we are left with is an unsettling feeling of how unsure we are. Everyone is harmed deeply by doubt here, and it binds the main characters here as strongly as it tears them apart. You have to feel for those caught in its ugly wake because they end up having to live with something that they did not necessarily bring on themselves. It’s a brilliant play that has been made into a great movie filled with outstanding performances. There will be nominations for some of the performances here, and of that I have no doubt.
**** out of ****
Now I really want to see this.
I have heard that it is Viola Davis who really steals the show here.
Excellent review.