Doubt

There is wonderful scene in this film where "Fr. Flynn" (Philip Seymour Hoffman) tries to explain, using feathers, just how wicked gossip can be. He is the victim of such nefarious chatter - but is he guilty? Well "Sister Aloysius" (Meryl Streep) believes so. She sees the father with a student on the street outside the school, then her colleague "Sister James" (Amy Adams) mentions that another, their first young black child "Donald" (Joseph Foster), looked a bit distressed after meeting with the priest in is vestry. She is determined to get to the truth and to be rid of this man. Streep is very convincing here. She portrays a woman who, based on the thinnest of actual evidence, relies on the certainty of her belief to level accusations against the man. Using that certainly, she confronts him imploring confession but is there anything to confess? Hoffman is also effective as a man that I initially had sympathies for - he was, after all, being victimised by his colleague with no evidence from the supposed victims and the first lad - "London" (Mike Roukis) was a distinctly untrustworthy boy. Viola Davis offers just the one principal scene as the affected boy's stoic mother, and that is a potent rationalisation of not just where she felt a young black kid sat on the ladder of society at the time, but also of where she felt the church sat on her own. She is a loving mother conflicted, and this is portrayed with intensity. I wasn't sold on the ending, either way it was unsatisfactory but this is still a well crafted and thought provoking assembly of strong acting talent and a solid story.