Movie Review: Doubt

This movie left me with a lot of doubts, undoubtedly as the director intended to do. But I even doubt whether I liked it or not, which he probably did not wish the viewers to do.

What struck me about this movie is that, for a movie that has the intrinsic setting of a Catholic church and school, there was very little talk about God, except in a very distant sort of theistic way, like “Praise God” for such and such. The other mention of God was also very questionable, yet central to the plot: while one is seeking justice for God, one must step away from God. Meryl Streep’s character even declares quite passionately that she will step away from the church if she has to in pursuit of justice.

Now let me go to the doubts that the movie-makers probably intended me to have. To outline the plot briefly, there is a priest who might possibly be having inappropriate relations with one of his altar boys. One of the young nuns, who also is very trusting, still notices some questionable clues that when she tells the head nun, becomes grounds for her certainty that the priest is guilty and must leave. The puzzle is never solved satisfactorily for the viewers, or for the characters. The title of the movie comes from a sermon in the beginning of the movie given by the very priest in question, and the head nun has a conversation with the other nuns asking “Where did that sermon come from?” Was the priest having doubts? Did he know someone who did? The reader likewise is full of questions: “Did he do something? Didn’t he do it?” At one point I was sure that the altar boy everyone thought he had abused was the wrong altar boy, and the other one was the one he had relations with. The movie is somewhat slow moving, even for me, but there were subtle fascinating parts and connections that left me thinking after the movie. Like why was the scene where one altar boy said to the other, “Do you think I’m fat?” included, and then later why did they show the priest talking with others in which he was telling a story he found amusing in which he had told a woman that her daughter was fat? It had to be intentional…

There was also an interesting feministic sort of tension in the movie. The nuns have to be obedient to the priests, and even in the principal’s office, which is the head nun, the priest takes her seat and forces her to sit in the guest chair. There’s also the interesting question, what is true love? Tough love, or a lovey-dovey sort of love, embodied in the Streep character vs. Hoffman’s character. As the viewer it is almost necessary to pick sides between Streep and Hoffman, and decide which one you think loves the children more.

But like I said, it left me with doubts as to how faithful it was the Catholic tradition. Catholics aren’t well-known for their brilliant sermons; unlike Protestants that is not the basis of their role as the pastor of their community. However, these sermons were atrocious, in the sense that as pretty and entertaining as they were, they had no Scripture in them at all, and passed as nothing more than motivational themed-speeches. It was a real disappointment to me that God was not dealt with realistically in this film, since there are plenty of films that deal with God more directly and aren’t even set in a religious setting. I don’t really understand why it was in the church at all, really; it could have just as easily occurred in a normal school with a male gym teacher or something. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, since the religious tension is kind of central, but I really felt it was not dealt with adequately.

So my final grade for this movie would probably be a straight up C. It wasn’t a complete waste of my time, yet I would not watch it again.