TRIAL JURIES are directed to find a defendant guilty only if convinced “beyond a reasonable doubt”. That assumes a moral certainty, yet it can be fraught with uncertainty and has led to miscarriages of justice.
"What do you do when you are not sure?" asks Fr Brendan Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in a sermon at the outset of Doubt. The setting is the Bronx in 1964, on the cusp of the civil rights movement,
a year after the Kennedy assassination traumatised the country, and two years after Vatican II began introducing reforms to make the church more accessible to the laity.
A clever communicator with an outgoing personality, Fr Flynn epitomises the changes as he courts his congregation. While he preaches, the intimidating school principal, Sr Aloysius (Meryl Streep), vigilantly patrols the aisles, slapping a talkative boy before revealing her stern features encircled in a forbidding black bonnet. Sr Aloysius is rigidly conservative, rooted in her firm convictions of right or wrong.
The first seeds of doubt about Fr Flynn are planted by the timid, ostensibly naive younger nun, Sr James (Amy Adams). She informs Sr Aloysius of her suspicions that the priest, who coaches basketball at the school, is paying undue attention to the only black student. Even though there’s no supporting proof, the principal doggedly pursues the case. “It takes a cat,” observes the school cook, intent on catching a mouse in the building. “Yes, it does,” purrs Sr Aloysius.
The scene is set for a battle of wills that propels the priest and nun on a collision course, and dramatic fireworks when their strong-willed personalities clash head-on. They are such formidable foes that their adeptness at argument and reasoning places viewers on an ideological seesaw as our sympathies shift.
Eschewing soft options, Doubtimpels us to address our own doubts about the moral dilemma raised and so acutely explored. The contemporary parallels evoked are inevitable in the wake of clerical sex abuse revelations and in references to the movement of suspects from one diocese to another.
Adapted by director John Patrick Shanley from his own Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Doubtis thoroughly compelling and thought-provoking, and powered by a quartet of virtuoso Oscar- nominated performances. There is a laudable absence of histrionics in the confrontations between Streep and Hoffman, both riveting and at the peak of their form. And Viola Davis is unforgettable in a single extended scene as the black schoolboy's mother.
The alert attention to detail of the ensemble cast is matched in the movie’s recreation of the period and of church rituals. As a former altar boy, I felt I could smell the incense from the waving thuribles.
Directed by John Patrick Shanley. Starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis 15A cert, gen release, 104 min★★★★
