Review of Doubt (2008) by Pats — 19 Dec 2008
For the most part, DOUBT recaptured the feel of parochial schools in the 1950s-1960s. Streep's character was finely drawn: underneath her bluff and authoritarian exterior is kindness and worldly wisdom.
She is strict with the students because she cares that they succeed morally and intellectually. She tries to protect the blind nun and, in my opinion, her motivation in going after the priest is not based on a personal power struggle (as some critics have suggested), but out of concern for the young black boy.
How much easier it would have been for her to let it go "unnoticed." Having been a principal in a Catholic school where abusive situations were taking place and having sought unsuccessfully for hierarchical involvement in remedying the wrong, I identify strongly with Sr.
Aloysius. Her dilemma is so difficult because the evidence is so tenuous. Like her, I've had parents excuse clerical misbehavior. You cannot imagine how lonely it feels to fight for children whose parents won't (whatever the reason).
The ambiguity is at the heart of this movie. How do we make a moral choice when the evidence is not conclusive and when any action (of omission or commission) has such horrendous consequences? All of the actors did a wonderful job; Steep, in particular, was superb in not caricaturing the authoritarian nun.
What range she has! From Mamma Mia to this! Incredible.
This review of Doubt (2008) was written by Pats on 19 Dec 2008.
Doubt has generally received positive reviews.
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