Meryl Streep in Doubt
The film, ‘Doubt’ has been nominated by Amazon as one of the best films for 2009… so far.
The review was first carried on this site in February.
Starring Meryl Streep in the lead role as Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the film adaptation of John Patrick Shanley’s stage play, Doubt: A Parable is set in a recent dark age, 1964.
If you were a kid at the time, you’ll recognise the car shapes, the slicked down hair; a deep conservatism fills the streets and the lack of laughter on people’s faces is sketched in wintry colours.
The film follows a year on the heel of President Kennedy’s assassination; a shock which affected morale throughout the world, and not just in the Catholic Church. The year 1964 was also a tinderbox for five years of black riots in the USA.
The film opens with a young African American boy (Joseph Foster) asking a fellow altar boy if he looks fat. The other boy puzzles, “Your clothes fit alright, don’t they?”
Donald Miller’s moment of doubt becomes the leitmotif of the film. The camera moves to Father Flynn (Phillip Seymour) giving a sermon on the nature of doubt.
As Flynn suggests that doubt might be a unifying force, Sister Aloysius sweeps silently down the aisles of the church terrifying children who are paying insufficient attention.
Later, she and her fellow teachers, all Sisters of Charity, New York, eat plain food and sip glasses of milk. Halfway through the meal she calls a stop to the eating and asks in tones that would disconcert the devil if anyone has noticed unusual behaviour…
Behaviour, she adds, that might have given Father Flynn reason to preach about doubt. Her tone brought to mind the chill of the inquisition some 400 years earlier.
A later scene, much in contrast to the nuns’ eating habits, sees Father Flynn wining and dining his Monsignor in company with several other men. The rare beef looks almost indecent.
One day during class, the young and naive Sister James (Amy Adams) receives a call asking for Donald Miller to meet Father Flynn in the rectory.
When Donald returns, Sister James smells alcohol on his breath and sees that he is distressed. Then she sees Father Flynn placing a white shirt in Donald’s locker.
On guard for unusual behaviour, Sister James reveals her suspicions to Sister Aloysius. The headmistress engineers an opportunity with Sister James to confront Father Flynn.
Drawn into their spider web, Father Flynn asks them to leave the matter alone as a private issue between the boy and himself but Sister Aloysius persists. The priest relents, revealing that Donald had been caught drinking altar wine.
Is that all? When Sister Aloysius then sends for Donald Miller’s mother to reveal her suspicions, Mrs. Miller (Viola Davis) asks her not to pursue the matter.
Pleading with the nun, Mrs Miller says Donald only needs to stay until the end of the school year before he goes to high school. In an ordinary school, a boy like him could be killed.
Meryl Streep as Sister Aloysius in the film “Doubt”
Despite the lack of evidence, and without support from Donald’s mother, Sister Aloysius demands that Father Flynn tell the truth or she will go to his superiors. But despite her stand, she develops severe doubts…
It is another extraordinary performance from Streep. She subtly lightens up the crabby, authoritarian figure of Sister Aloysius, bringing passion and humanity to the role.
In her cameo role, Viola Davis as Donald Miller’s mother also packs a punch; her concern is the survival of her son for the next six months not the finer points of his relationship with Father Flynn.
Doubt was written and directed by John Shanley for the screen and produced by Scott Rudin for Miramax.
9/10
