Doubt

Doubt.

The movie “Doubt” begins with the character, Fr. Flynn, giving a sermon on doubt. His premise (which is theologically sound by the way) is that doubt is an important part of growing in faith. Without doubt, real faith cannot grow.

In the process of preaching this sermon he makes an enemy in the school’s principal played by Meryl Streep. Her character, Sister Aloysius, is a woman, a nun, who a hard, difficult woman, finds the concept of doubt to be anathema. She lives her life by certainty. As she says over and over again, she knows people.

Amy Adams plays Sister James, a young, kindly nun who ends up in the middle of a war between the associate pastor of St. Nicholas Church and the principal of St. Nicholas School. The story centers on whether Father Flynn had been inappropriate with a young, friendless, African American student.

This is really a great movie and very well played by the performers in the movie. Streep and Hoffman are their usual brilliant selves, Adams is great, and Viola Davis who plays the mother of the student in question and who is in the movie for all of 10 minutes, steals the performance spotlight from two giants. If Viola Davis does not win best supporting actress for her performance in this movie, the Academy will have passed over one of the great all time performances in a film.

The movie, however, is about doubt and certainty and the battle between them. But, at least in my mind, it goes much deeper.

The story, at least to me, is actually about Sister Aloysius and her descent into her own personal hell. Priests are preaching on doubt, nuns are beginning to question her, and ball point pens are taking over the world. The certainty of her world is beginning to collapse but she can not admit it. Her security is based on that certainty and she will go to any means to preserve it.

For many people Sister Aloysius will be dismissed as a caricature of nuns. She is not. I have known many sisters very well, and these women are intelligent, wise, and good beyond almost all imagination. Often serving in a church that offers little to no recognition of what they have to offer the wider church, these women do amazing things.

In 1964 convent life was painful for so many people. The era in which this story was told was between the two sessions of Vatican II and life was going to change for priests and nuns in amazing ways. Some dreaded it. They found their security in what they knew and they believed that serving God required suffering. They, like Sister Aloysius were willing to suffer and believed that everyone should suffer along with them.

The problem with Father Flynn is this. He can either be a great guy who is being railroaded by this troubled woman or he is a charming predator. He can be either. His personal caring for the young man, his protection of the lad in the harshness of the school can either be the efforts of a caring, compassionate priest, or grooming by a predator. He does have answers to the questions but they do not fly with Sister Aloysius. She is certain that he was not appropriate with the young man and wants the priest gone. She sees herself as a protector of the students in her charge and, ultimately the world and the church as she sees it.

Ultimately the movie offers no answers. It leaves the viewer with doubt. People leave the theater, and many are certain in what happened or didn’t happen. But they fall into the dilemma of certainty. There are so many questions that are left unanswered that it leaves the viewer with doubts. Which ultimately makes this movie a slice of real life.