Doubt (2008)

Doubt (2008), featuring a wonderful cast, is a tense story set in a Bronx Catholic school in 1964. Meryl Streep plays Sister Beauvier, the principal of the school; Amy Adams plays Sister James, a younger, less experience teacher; Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the controversial Father Brendan Flynn; and Viola Davis plays Mrs. Miller, the mother of Donald Miller, a student at the school.



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Donald Miller is the first and only African American student in the school. His parents enrolled him at the Catholic school after he had been beaten at his former (public) school. Father Flynn takes an interest in Donald, but his actions are questioned by Sister James, who in turn, alerts Sister Beauvier to her concerns. Their suspicions of Flynn's inappropriate relationship with Donald are without evidence, yet something does not seem right to them. Sister Beauvier, who disapproves of Father Flynn's more modern approach to the Catholic faith, begins an "investigation" which is based more on assumptions and intellectual tricks than on facts.

In terms of conducting her investigation and deciding upon an appropriate action to take as Principal, Sister Beauvier appears to defy the rules of the Catholic order. She informs Father Flynn that she contacted his past parish, to ask why he had left the school. Flynn is furious at her for not following the proper channels and for going outside the established Catholic hierarchy and school policies. Although she did not actually contact his past parish, she leverages her supposed discovery of his past against him, pressuring him to leave. Aside from the issues pertaining to her defiance for the Catholic hierarchy, there is obvious issues of gender and power operating here. As a female principal, she finds a way to overpower him through a series of intellectual tricks, and attempts to destroy his career.

Donald's mother provides an interesting twist on parental involvement and decision making in education. Confronted with the possibility that her son is being molested by the school's priest, she questions the evidence and likelihood that this could even happen to her son. Even if it is true, she states that her son only needs to stay in the school until the spring, when he can graduate and move on to high school. This raises the question of what length parents will go to for their child's education, and at what cost? Mrs. Miller viewed the possibility of her son being the victim of a priest's sexual misconduct as only temporary, and was willing to risk the well-being of her son for the educational gains that could be made by remaining in the Catholic school. While some may question her reaction and request to leave things as is, others may understand her decision to better her son's education at all costs.