Even if you don’t worship at the Shrine of Meryl Streep, you’ll enjoy watching her hard-nosed Sister Aloysius Beauvior, the principal of a Catholic elementary school in 1964 Bronx, abhor the ballpoint pen, admonish a fellow nun for keeping cough drops in her desk (they are “a candy by another name”) and recoil at a student’s hair barrette — obviously a mark of promiscuity.
Four out of five stars
» Starring: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams
» Rated: PG-13 for thematic material
» Running time: 104 minutes
In the big-screen version of John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play, Aloysius, known to students as The Dragon, opposes change on any scale, even as seemingly innocuous as singing “Frosty the Snowman” in the Christmas pageant. “It espouses a pagan belief in magic,” she says.
Less a disciplinarian and more of a friendly ear, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s charismatic Father Flynn represents the new way of the world, believing the clergy should be more personable.
With no proof of Flynn’s wrongdoing besides his slightly long nails and taking sugar in his tea, Aloysius embarks on a crusade against him. She prompts a young teacher, Sister James, played by wide-eyed Amy Adams, to confess Flynn has taken a personal interest in a new student named Donald, the school’s first black student, who’s bullied by certain classmates.
Even though James is uncertain anything wrong has happened between the boy and Flynn, Aloysius moves forward to destroy his reputation and have him forced out of St. Nicholas parish. The scene in which Aloysius confronts Flynn is a wonderful dance.
Between indirect and direct insults, Flynn takes a seat behind Aloysius’ desk; she in return opens the blinds to shine sun into his eyes. Shanley wrote and directed the film version of “Doubt,” which accounts for its word-for-word adherence to his play.
I can overlook heavy-handed visuals such as a blustering wind during an already climatic scene, but I can’t get past Shanley’s decision to break from conventional storytelling to tilt the camera so we’re watching a character with our head cocked to the side. The off-kilter angle doesn’t ruin the entire experience of suspiciously watching Flynn and dissecting Aloysius’ motives, but it does throws us out of the engrossing story and detracts from the rage and discomfort festering inside the characters and building in the audience.
You’ll leave “Doubt” with uncertainties, so beware if you like a tidy conclusion.
