DOUBT

DIRECTOR: JOHN PATRICK SHANLEY
WRITER: JOHN PATRICK SHANLEY
RELEASED: DECEMBER 25, 2008



CAST:
MERYL STREEP - SISTER ALOYSIUS BEAUVIER
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN - FATHER BRENDAN FLYNN
AMY ADAMS - SISTER JAMES
VIOLA DAVIS - MRS. MILLER


The movie was released December 25, 2008, Christmas Day. Obviously not by coincidence. What a time to feel DOUBT...
This movie was set in 1964, in a Catholic School in the Bronx. Looming in political unrest, this was the first school who took on a black student. The school was predominantly Italian and Irish.
The movie starts us off showing how horribly strict and brash Sister Aloysius is with everyone, including all of the students and staff. She has to answer to Father Brenden Flynn, yet, she seems as though she runs the school. Her disciplinarian mentality is the old way and old ideas are hard to change. Father Flynn is more open to change and wants the church to portray a more friendly aura. Most people in the school agree, yet Sister Aloysius is stubborn and wants to teach with the old concepts of discipline through FEAR.
THE REAL ACTORS


Sister James, a young nun and also a teacher at the school notices Father Flynn showing more affection to Donald Miller, the first black student at the school. As we learn later, the young black boy is being abused at home by his father and he was placed in a catholic school so that he could stay out of trouble until he graduates. Father Flynn protects him from bullying by the other children at the school. The protection which Father Flynn shows is taken to mean possibly more than a simple fatherly love for a son. Sister Aloysius, having a innate dislike for Father Flynn, wants to see more into Father Flynn's interest in the boy.
The movie goes on to show how Sister Aloysius tries to do everything in her power to remove Father Flynn from the school. And in the end, she succeeds. It is not very clear whether Father Flynn or Sister Aloysius is in the right.

Obviously, this is why the movie is called "DOUBT". It is incredibly irking to watch the entire movie and just not know the truth. There is such doubt, due to no real evidence to convict Father Flynn. It really tickles your brain.


Supremely acted by Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman.