Review: Doubt

Feb 6 2009 by Aranda Garrard, The Journal

IN this age of CCTV cameras, the internet and the paparazzi, no secret or lapse in judgment remains concealed forever.

The truth will come out, splashed across a front page or captured live on camera. Reading and seeing is believing.

However, our hunger for news is insatiable and in the absence of solid facts, we often nourish that hunger with gossip and rumour.

So, what happens when you believe something to be true, even though you have no tangible evidence?

“What do you do when you’re not sure? That’s the topic of my sermon today,” explains caring priest, Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) at the beginning.

Themes of certainty and suspicion underpin writer/director John Patrick Shanley’s film, adapted from his own Tony award-winning stage play of the same name, which is set in a 1960s Catholic school.

In this world of religion and rules, Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) rules with an iron fist.

Trouble erupts when Sister James (Amy Adams) confides to her ferocious superior that the holy man has “taken an interest” in one of the boys, Donald Miller (Joseph Foster II). When the head nun learns Father Flynn spent time alone in the rectory with Donald, she draws unsavoury conclusions.

She confronts the man of God, determined to bully him into a confession. Instead, he pleads innocence.

The situation spirals when Sister Aloysius contacts Donald’s mother (Viola Davis).

Like Frost/Nixon, the film version of Doubt lacks some of the tension of the stage version, but Shanley’s adaptation is still riveting.

Streep devours the screen, eyes burning with indignation as the nun pursues her vendetta, engaging in some terrific verbal skirmishes with Hoffman’s besieged priest.

Adams provides the meek voice of reason, while Viola Davis is stunning, taking our breath away with her character’s reaction to the allegations of child abuse.

The balance of power shifts, our loyalties are torn and like Sister James, we try to remain unbiased.