Doubt

God is in the details . . . . Spoiler Alert!
After reading all of the reviews for the film, DOUBT, I am amazed at how many people did not comprehend the complexity of this film. To really understand this film, the viewer must note the small, quiet details of this story. For example, examine the scene in which Sister Aloysius is eating with the other nuns in the school cafeteria. Notice that she is not eating but instead is taking some medicine (probably aspirin) and drinking only water. She does not comment on how she is feeling like most people would do. Instead she is carefully monitoring the entire cafeteria full of rowdy students, while helping the blind nun sitting next to her clean off her sleeves and conversing with Sister James about the welfare of a student.

Most people think that unselfishness and goodness should be wreathed in benevolent smiles and warm hugs. But I invite everyone to look below the surface of the behavior of all of the major characters in this story: Sister Aloysius, Sister James, Father...

Is doubt a virtue?
At a Catholic school circa 1964, doubt has begun to enter a world of certainty. Times are changing and the Catholic Church is becoming more liberal. This sets the stage for a battle between principal Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) and Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Sister Aloysius suspects Father Flynn of inappropriate behavior with a student (Joseph Foster II) on very circumstantial evidence and makes it her crusade to remove him from his position. As she says, she has no proof, but she has her certainty.

It is this certainty which seems to make her a monster, as she dismisses each bit of information or alternate interpretation of events that would cast doubt on her belief. But this would not be such a rich film if writer / director John Patrick Shanley had made it that simple. The viewer is never given satisfactory ground for completely siding with either the sister or the father. While it is very clear that Sister Aloysius is very rigid, cold, and...

A Hard Habit to Break
In "The Devil Wears Prada", Meryl Streep armored herself in an icily glamorous veneer, striking terror into the hearts of subordinates with a deadly combination of haughty contempt and soft-spoken venom. Her turn as an Anna Wintour-ish magazine editor was funny, yet subtle, never succumbing to over-the-top theatrics that would have propelled the performance into caricature. As the formidable Sister Aloysius in John Patrick Shanley's new film version of his Broadway hit, "Doubt", Streep again assays the role of an unlikable character, this time with a terrifying earnestness that eschews subtlety for the ferocious passion of a woman for her beliefs.

Set in an urban Catholic school circa 1964, "Doubt" unfolds in a rapidly changing America that many aren't yet ready to embrace. The Kennedy assassination is still fresh in everyone's minds, and the civil rights movement has resulted in the enrollment of the first black student in the Italian-Irish parish school. The parish...

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