Doubt (2008)

Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman - how have I not already seen this 20 times?

Doubt spoilers ahead.*

*this movie came out in 2008, you’ve had literally 16 years to watch it.

It’s Friday night, the week is over, so naturally, I’m at the clurb (in my sweats, my dog under the blanket, watching a movie).

I wasn’t sure what to watch, so I perused my watchlist on Letterboxd (this is a plug, follow me because I don’t know how to add people), and came across Doubt, starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman. I threw it on.

Doubt is a fucking fantastic movie. I knew with the all star cast, which also includes a very young Amy Adams and Viola Davis, it wouldn’t be bad but I also knew that it was about a pastor and his inappropriate relationship with a young boy, I wasn’t sure how much I’d like it.

I’m finding that many of my favorite things these days are well done, regardless of what the subject matter is. I loved Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow even though I haven’t played a video game since I had a purple Gameboy in 1999; not because video games are of any interest to me, but because that was a really gorgeously written book.

Doubt is indeed about a difficult subject, but like Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, it’s beautifully written. It’s about… doubt. And conviction. And what we know and who we can trust… and it makes you think. It even makes you… DOUBT.

The movie begins with Father Flynn (played by our boy Phil, R.I.P to a true legend) giving a sermon about doubt. My initial impression was ‘here we go, this is gonna really hit the nail on the head,’ he even said verbatim, ‘this is what my sermon is about,’ and I thought… heaven help us. But, that one little line aside, the screenplay was pretty close to perfect.

Father Flynn’s sermon about doubt brings his congregation together by explaining the disorienting feeling adults go through when they feel hopeless and alone. It’s clear in the way his sermon is delivered that the congregation likes and respects him. He even acknowledges (in a roundabout way) that he has done something wrong. It’s subtle enough that it could just be “I’m human,” but he is addressing his congregation and he says the words: “no one knows I’ve done something wrong.”

This introduction serves to make him simultaneously sympathetic, and likable, because you can tell his words are resonating with his congregation, and he is self-effacing enough to acknowledge that he’s imperfect. But it also sets the stage - perhaps he’s done something wrong.

During his sermon, we see quiet Meryl Streep (Sister Aloysius) skulking down the aisle, smacking the backs of heads, instilling fear in all of the students she walks by. She is severe, intense, immediately unlikable. They even had beautiful Meryl Streep either not wear a lick of makeup, or they put makeup on her to make her look bad.

So scene one: Father Flynn is the lovable, relatable pastor, and Sister Streep (it’s easier, let me have this, you know what I mean) is a severe, unlikable schoolmarm.

Sidebar - why don’t we have words like schoolmarm anymore? They don’t make ‘em like that anymore. You may not even know what it means! I do because I have a parent who was born in the 1930s, so if you don’t: schoolmarm, (noun) a person who exhibits characteristics attributed to schoolteachers (such as strict adherence to arbitrary rules). ANYWAY BACK TO THE MOVIE DISCUSSION.

After the sermon, a young boy, Donald Miller, the newest, and only Black student at this school / in the congregation, approaches Father Flynn and expresses his wish to become a priest someday. Father Flynn gives him words of encouragement, and a small toy, and they share a sweet, innocent moment.

Later, we’re at the schoolyard and we see Father Flynn being nice to everyone, and Sister Streep yells at a young boy in front of everyone, further instilling, this lady is a bitch and we’re not supposed to like her. Father Flynn sidles up to Sister James (Amy Adams) and makes a joke about how “the dragon is hungry,” implying that Sister Streep enjoys getting others into trouble. And ya know what? Maybe she does.

That’s one of the things this movie handles so well. Father Flynn is likeable, Sister Streep is a bitch! But that doesn’t mean that Father Flynn isn’t a child abuser, and Sister Streep isn’t right. It also doesn’t mean that it is right. It creates… Say it with me… DOUBT!!!

I didn’t catch it the first time, but in wanting to do a nice job reviewing this movie for you, I went back and watched certain parts again. I noticed at a dinner with all the nuns (which is sad, and they’re drinking milk and hardly speaking, and is brilliantly juxtaposed against the dinner of Father Flynn and the other church-y dudes eating rare meat and having a gay old time) Sister Streep silently helps a nun who is going blind by using her pinky to discretely help the nun locate her fork so she may begin eating. The nun has to hide her blindness or else she’ll be kicked out of the parish. Sister Streep cares for her / helps her hide her blindness throughout the movie. This makes an otherwise hard-o character a bit softer, and sweeter. Although subtly.

At this dinner, Sister Streep asks the nuns what they think Father Flynn’s doubt sermon was really about - is he having doubts? She tells the nuns to keep their eyes on him and to bring anything suspicious to her behavior. At this point in the movie, you’re thinking “jeeez get a life Sister Streep! he’s the likable Pastor, let him live!” but it sets the tone. She’s right. He does need to have an eye kept on him.

Sister Amy Adams, the newest, and most cheerful nun in the congregation is Donald Miller’s teacher. She is overly optimistic, and we see that she finds Sister Streep’s way of ruling over the school to be oppressive. However, shortly after the Sad Nun Dinner, Father Flynn takes Donald Miller out of class one afternoon for a one-on-one conversation, and he returns distraught, with alcohol on his breath. She also sees him slip a t-shirt into Donald’s locker.

We then see a few other small signs of Father Flynn being potentially gross: he laughs about how fat some woman is, proudly keeps his fingernails long (men, don’t do this), eats super rare meat, smokes and takes 3 sugar cubes in his tea in front of nuns who have given up everything for a life of chastity… We also see him wield the bro-hood of the church a little too comfortably. Which comes into play later.

Sister Streep takes matters into her own hands and tries to confront F.F., who basically says “I don’t like your tone and if you have a problem with me, suck it, I’m your superior.” When pressed, he says that Donald Miller had alcohol on his breath because he stole communion wine.

Not one to give up quickly, Sister Streep brings in Donald Miller’s mother (Viola Davis) for a one on one. They have a heartbreaking conversation where Viola Davis basically says, “my son is gay, he just has to survive the end of this school year, let it happen.” She also alludes to the fact that Donald doesn’t have a positive father figure at home, and the fact that F.F. is taking an interest in him is probably the best thing to happen to him in some time.

This is when the movie switches between “Meryl is valiantly trying to protect this young boy,” to “Meryl is going to bring down Father Flynn come hell or high water.”

Meryl decides to confront Father Flynn again, and tell him that she’s called his old congregation and has proof that he has a history of molesting young boys. He asks which man she spoke to, and she says she spoke to a nun. He freaks out. That is not protocol! She smirks at him, she’s outwitted him. The bro-hood can’t protect him from the truth.

He apologizes, steps down, and leaves.

In the penultimate scene, Meryl Streep confesses to Amy Adams that she didn’t call anyone, never spoke to a nun. But his resignation was confirmation enough.

Except. She’s beginning to have doubts.

This movie does an excellent job of obfuscating the facts of the “case” (did Father Flynn molest, or simply care for this young boy) and leave you, the viewer, in a similar position to the characters of the film. Only Father Flynn and Donald Miller really know what happened, and the rest of us, Meryl Streep included, are left with our convictions and our doubts.

Meryl Streep’s final scene where she admits to having doubts gave ME some doubts - and I am still not sure where I land.

I think that Father Flynn is a creep, there’s a famous scene where he’s showing the basketball team his disgusting, long fingernails and one of the boys flinches. I think that it’s also totally possible that he was just being king to Donald Miller because he was a young boy who needed help.

I think Meryl’s way of handling it was very clever, and that she is hard-headed and the kind of heroine I’d want on my team if I were ever pressing charges against someone. She’s dogged and will stop at nothing to get the bad guys out.

Overall, I loved this movie, loved the writing, the direction and the acting, and will definitely add it to my top-10 list.