It’s 1964s in the Bronx where Writer/Director John Patrick Shanley grew up and undoubtedly attended Catholic school. The story centers on Father Flynn (Academy Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman) in conflict with Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Academy Award winner Meryl Streep) over her iron-gloved principles (as the school Principal) where children are concerned. Or as the Catholics used to say in my day: “Raise your children with one part love, one part discipline and one part fear…” But when the young Sister James (Academy award nominee Amy Adams) suggests foul play between the Priest and a young boy, the suspicions – the ‘doubt’ – cast over the school makes for an examination of selfish behavior that could leave the Church with devastating consequences. The fact that Father Flynn is suddenly giving sermons that have underlying messages doesn’t help either. While Hoffman is well-cast in this role, Streep is unlikable, as she should be, and will still find an Oscar nomination. Adams turns off her sexuality from “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day” but maintains the innocent doe-eyed energy she has in “Enchanted” – the movie that put her on the map. But the movies biggest star in this film is by far the script. Having grown up in Catholic Boarding school, I can’t help but wonder how Shanley took his perceptions of those petrified moments we all experienced of a second grade child forced to recite three “Hail Mary’s” and spin those fears into an adult way of thinking. The only problem with this movie, is that I don’t recall there being a challenge of a Priest’s behavior and a conviction until the late 80s or the 1990s. And, unlike the play where a well-formed balance of ‘doubt’ exists on all parts, Hoffman’s performance in the movie gives us less doubt that he might be innocent. Three tiaras.
