DOUBT

Miramax Films
Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey Karten
Grade: A-
Directed by: John Patrick Shanley
Written By: John Patrick Shanley from his play
Cast: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis, Lloyd Clay Brown, Joseph Foster
Screened at: Park Avenue, NYC, 12/1/08
Opens: December 12, 2008

You don’t have to be religious to believe in miracles. A minor one occurred in a screening room attended by critics and guild members, as John Patrick Shanley, best known as a playwright but by cinema buffs for his 1987 scripting “Moonstruck,” strikes it rich with “Doubt.” Shanley helps put to rest the misbegotten idea that theatrical works cannot translate well to the screen. This one is a humdinger, though one which despite its opening up cinematically is clear about its roots on the legitimate stage. “Doubt” is blessed by remarkable acting not only by the principals (especially by the principal) but by the entire ensemble, many of whom in the roles of kids who are attending 8th grade at a Bronx, New York Catholic school. If you missed the play when it was off-Broadway, then moved to the Great White Way where it survived 525 performances, take a front-row seat for this one. The pews rarely get this dramatic, nor are you likely on a Sunday morning to embrace topics in under two hours’ time like feminism, authority, politics, especially the conflict between the traditional and the progressive.

Meryl Streep anchors the action, recreating the role of Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the principal of a Catholic school taught by nuns, the students appearing as well at Sunday services conducted by a charismatic priest, Father Brendan Flynn, and attended by an SRO gathering of mostly working-class Irish and Italians. The contrast between nun and priest could not be more stark. Aloysius is from the old school, believing that the youths must be controlled by absolute tyranny, which might involve a slap on the back of the head, a stern, whispered warning to sit up straight, and a detention assignment to reproduce the multiplication table. She opposes even the use of ballpoint pens (this is during the early 1960’s) because, she believes rightly so especially that penmanship is going to hell. Father Flynn favors a friendlier approach, a more informal rapport with kids and chatty sermons with the adult of his congregation. And he uses ballpoint pens. (When I went to elementary school in the Neolithic age, we did not have even fountain pens, writing with quill pens which we dipped into inkwells on our desks when we were not plunging the braids of the girls sitting in front of us into the wells.)

The middle ground is taken by cute-as-a-button Sister James, played by Amy Adams (“Enchanted”). She is young and innocent, teaching history to her co-ed charges with a smile and a gentle voice (though her manner of questioning leaves much to be desired, says this write, a former history teacher). She is soon to regret some information she passes on to Sister Aloysius. While the words “sex” and “inappropriate touching” are never mentioned in the film, words considered so taboo that they are not to be uttered, everyone is clear about an implication. Father Flynn is accused by Sister Aloysius of doing something inappropriate in his rectory with the school’s only black boy, Donald Miller (Joseph Foster II), a lad who has been placed into the school by his mother (Viola Davis) out of fear that he would be beaten in a public school.

Shanley mines the story for comedy, showing Sister Aloysius as a woman making suggestions which she barely realizes are funny. For example, she instructs the young sister to put a picture of the pope near the blackboard, any pope living or dead, because the teacher could face the board, look into the glass frame, and spot kids who are acting up--making them think that she has eyes in back of her head.

While the confrontation between Flynn and Aloysius is heated, the stuff of compelling drama, much of the tension comes from the long pauses that often mark spaces in conversations, the kinds of rest-stops that Harold Pinter would enjoy. These pauses give the audience time to reflect on the bon mots as though stated by a comedian with the gift of perfect timing. Contrasts between Aloysius and Flynn are made throughout the picture, such as the dead silence that greets the mostly vegetable dinners of the nuns versus the noisy, red-meat fests between Flynn, acting as a comic emcee, with male collagues—who drink, smoke, and laugh heartily.

Some of the audience may wish for a resolution to close the story, but whether Flynn is guilty of paying untoward attention to a lonely boy is left for us to ponder. Some will leave the theater saying, “Aha, this (or that) virtually proves his guilt,” while others will note, “Nah, the kid would have come forward with hints of inappropriate touching.” Interestingly, Sister Aloysius never uses her wiles to question the boy privately.

Yes, Meryl Streep will get nominations from awards groups (duh) and so might the first-class Philip Seymour Hoffman, while Amy Adams stands quite eligible for supporting actress nods. But who cares? All we know for now is that “Doubt” is terrific and, did I say it is a minor miracle?

Rated PG-13. 104 minutes. © 2008 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online