Our petty lives can be reduced to stitching together a disparate set of perceptual swatches. The result of this sewing project is a false idol we like to call The Truth. Like any patchwork quilt, though, The Truth may be cobbled together well enough to allow us enough shut-eye to function.
And this idea, I believe, is what is explored deeply in Doubt. The movie opens with Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) sermonizing on the way in which uncertainty and hopelessness can be as much of a communal bond as faith and joy. What an odd message for a community whose raison d’être is the supposed shared faith of its constituents. It’s no matter since Flynn’s own faith surely isn’t in jeopardy—or so the audience is led to believe at first. His flock is made up of of a working-class Bronx neighbourhood circa 1964, a place and time during which the old once-infallible social order is slowly crumbling.
At the parish school, Flynn seems to be loved by the students. He coaches basketball, flashes miraculous smiles and puts on a flawless façade of embracing the idea that the clergy and laymen can bond together over their shared humanity. But on closer examination, the edges of Flynn’s seamlessly-stitched milieu are beginning to fray. Flynn is perhaps a little too friendly with some of the boys. Donald Miller (Joseph Foster)—the only black student at the school—appears extremely distraught after being called down to Father Flynn’s office—alone, no less. Questions begin to arise. Isn’t it odd that this parish is Flynn’s third in only five years? Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep), the rather austere principal of the parish school, seems to think something fishy is afoot in the depths of Father Flynn’s soul. But it’s not so simple a sketch; the good but formidable sister also resents Flynn’s sweet tooth, joviality, and disregard for her rules against ballpoint pens as well as his amateur enjoyment of secular Christmas carols. Flynn also has access to a masculine world of clerical privilege, a world in which Sister Aloysius’ ordained role is to exhibit the virtues of chastity, obedience and restraint, among other decidedly thankless attributes, so maybe she’s just got sour grapes that won’t transfigure into sacramental wine any time soon. And then there’s Sister James (Amy Adams), a lamb who goes to the proverbial slaughter as Sister Aloysius plants the seed of doubt in the young nun’s perception of masculine clerical virtue.
But is Flynn culpable of corrupting the youth in his charge? Is he a wolf in the fold that needs to answer to the wrath of God, or at least His handmaidens? And what of the fact that Flynn is Donald Miller’s only friend in the all-white school? If Miller’s only real happiness is his relationship with Flynn, should we turn a blind eye to the nature of this relationship, however questionable it could be? And if Flynn is publicly accused of pedophilia and the accusations turn out to be false, could the acc live with having destroyed the life of an innocent man?
All these circling questions make Doubt the quintessential conundrum wrapped in an enigma. But not only is the film’s content fascinating as it dabbles in human uncertainty, but it also grapples with the gripping politics of gendered and religious relations.
To top it all off, the cinematography is stunning in its thoughtful pace and execution. The viewer is treated with a variety of discomfort-inducing shots from above, as if the characters are under surveillance either by a silent human witness or even God Himself. The transitions between many of the scenes are often jarring, which contributes to the overall unease that pervades the flick. As usual, Hoffman and Streep deliver such mind-blowing performances that the viewers must gather their spattered brains up off the seats around them before leaving the theatre. It’s also clear that Adams’ star is on the rise; in this role she has really stepped it up from her previous roles as “Gorgeous Woman” in Tenacious D and The Pick of Destiny and the even more recent Enchanted and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.
So maybe Doubt would do poorly at the wild goose chase for The Truth. But that’s about the only thing it fails at. Living in doubt, as the movie suggests, is infinitely more difficult than living in the safe confines of false certainty. Although you can’t bank on much these days, here’s one thing that you can stake it all on: Doubt will not disappoint.
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