Doubt

THERE ARE SO many blockbusters to choose from at the moment that it seems difficult to know which one to start with. Doubt is just one of those; nominated for five Academy awards and three Baftas. It has a line-up of stunningly good actors, with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams in leading roles. >>>Yet the advert makes it look like some Puritan costume drama. Starkly presenting the life of the Church it portrays, the film presents the strict Catholic congregation of St Nicholas’ Church in New York’s deprived Bronx, attached to the local school under the iron-fist of the nun Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep).

Her name is frightening and indeed Sister Aloysius Beauvier was the most frightening form of schoolmistress. The film was not worth missing, as cinema-goers were taken back to school quivering with fear at the formidable Director, whose interaction with the children brought some very touchingly funny moments.

What makes the film so good are the many layers of plot that develop. Originally a stage play by John Patrick Shanley, he took up the task of directing the film. The new priest Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is an inspirational leader, loved by his congregation and the children of the school for his inspirational and personal modes of teaching.

His suspiciously close relationship with a Black boy Donald Miller develops into a personal attack by Sister Aloysius to get him sacked. Based on her doubts and not her proof, the story opens up countless questions of morality, religion, education and homosexuality.

The screen-play vividly brought across the essence of meanness and decay in the life of St. Nicholas church and school. The vision was unromantic, away from the glitz and glamour of many Hollywood films. In the Church, the choir of children shouted hymns, whilst concealed from the congregation the damp vestry concealed peeling mint-green wallpaper. Sister Aloysius provided stoic strength in her care for the decaying old nuns who needed help with eating their rank meals. Moments of tension were exacerbated not by glorious music, but by the sudden flash of a broken light-bulb.

The play is filled with strong Oscar-nominated performances. Miles away from her glory in Mamma Mia, Meryl Streep plays a complex character bound by her Stoic religious conviction, cold and determined, dry and comic, she hides a sad past.

She shows courage in her determination to pursue Father Flynn from a weaker position in the Church hierarchy. She has no proof, but she stands by her religious morals and convictions. Her rigidness has been part of her firm hold upon the school and she sticks by this.

In turn, Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a charming, inspirational leader who brings life back to the Church. He has the art of concealing what happened between the boy and himself, even when asked directly. The skill of the plot is that it keeps us guessing what he has actually done.

The naive young nun Sister James (Amy Adams) and the mother of the boy, Mrs Miller (Viola Davies) both add moving moral dimensions to the film. At the end, I was left uncomfortable in my seat, unable to put the blame on any character and having to deal with a surprising number of conundrums about religion and morals.

There may be some people who have had enough of religion and homosexuality and indeed these are central elements of the play. Yet the film is beautifully done, with some great stylised moments. Take for example Sister Aloysius’ first scene, where all we see is the back of her head wrapping boys’ backs with a cane as they fall asleep in sermon. This is a great moment of school-mistress comedy.

The film actually got people laughing out loud, which is a rare event in the cinema. Most of all, this film is worth seeing because of the quality of the acting. There is no weak link, with a number of moving performances.