” I will do what needs to be done, though I'm damned to Hell! You should understand that, or you will mistake me.”
Playwright John Patrick Shanley has had much success in the theater world. However, success in Hollywood had been middling, at best. Shanley won an Oscar for his first screenplay, Moonstruck, but he hasn’t been able to catch lightning in a bottle again. After a pair of forgettable films, Shanley made his debut as a director with Joe Versus the Volcano, a movie synonymous with the term, box office bomb. Shanley didn’t direct again for over a decade and a half though did (mind-bogglingly) write the adaptation of Congo. Shanley once again steps into the director’s chair for the film version of his Pulitzer and Tony-winning play, Doubt.
Doubt takes place at a Catholic school in the Bronx during the mid-60’s. The country is in the midst of massive change and the Vatican Church prepares to act accordingly. Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is looking to enact some sort of progress under the guise of the Vatican II movement. Meanwhile the school’s principal and head nun, the stern Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep), clings to the stodgy traditions that have been the norm all her life. Sister Aloysius isn’t above smacking a kid in the back of the head. She thinks ball point pens will destroy an entire generation’s penmanship. She feels “Frosty the Snowman” is a song that promotes pagan rituals. When Sister Aloysius lets her thoughts about a magical snowman be known, Father Flynn snidely reveals the topic for his next sermon, ‘intolerance.’
Trapped in the middle of this conflict is the young sister James (Amy Adams). Sister Aloysius takes Sister James under her wing, giving advice on how to handle her unruly students. She also asks that Sister James keep her eye on Father Flynn. There’s something that’s just not right about him. Thus the seed is planted and Sister James believes that there is something suspicious about the relationship between Father Flynn and the school’s first and only black student, Donald Miller (Joseph Foster).
The film isn’t about truth, but the hazy gray area of ambiguity. There’s no evidence at all of impropriety and Shanley manages to avoid pointing the audience towards guilty or innocent. The words ‘pedophilia’ and ‘molestation’ are never uttered. What Shanley isn’t able to do is translate his play into a full cinematic experience. To his credit, Doubt isn’t overly stage-y, but Shanley tries too hard in certain moments to visually expand the film. His allusions are a bit too obvious. Strong winds and rain, a cat catching a mouse, etc. In one sequence, we watch the nuns have a modest, quiet, and orderly dinner before we cut to the priests laughing loudly at dirty jokes while drinking wine and cutting into blood red meat. Shanley also tries to spice his composition up with several ill-advised tilted angles.
Doubt is essentially an actor’s showcase and everybody brings it. In particular, there is the commanding presence of Meryl Streep who has mastered the icy cold exterior and biting wit of Sister Aloysius. And nobody does wide-eyed, white bread, naiveté than Amy Adams. The film hits a left turn when Viola Davis steps in as Donald Miller’s mother. She only has a small part, but her scenes with Streep are the film’s most pivotal moments.
Rating: ***
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