Doubt: Hoffman And Streep Movie

[Saint Therese]

I'm going to add it to mine as well. I want to make up my own mind.

[Saint Therese]

I watched this movie yesterday. As far as the film itself goes it was only mediocre. I found the story line a little too ambiguous and unbelievable. There were numerous things about the life of the sisters which made it obvious that the creators of the film did only the most cursory research at best. You'd think they'd do more reasearch about the lives of religious since that was the subject of the film. The director in his commentary mentions several times how the sisters have "vow of silence" and other such nonsensicals. I didn't find it to be a direct attack on the Church. I think it was more a statement of pre-Vatican II Church was stupid and bad and the Church needs to be more liberal. Also there was a lot of feminist undertones. If you watch the short feature on the Sisters of Charity you'll see how it all ties in to their philosophy. What I found amusing was that the director obviously thought himself to be the greatest authority on Catholicism. Obviously he is not such a great authority.

[Brother Adam]

I saw it tonight. I was impressed with the acting (Streep is an amazing actress, it took me half the movie to figure out the lead nun was her), overall good cinema. I believe that the movie can be used to have an enlightening discussion about the priestly sex abuse scandal and how many good priests have been slandered and their reputations destroyed on the unfounded suspicion of others. That's what made for a great ending - did he abuse the child? We simply don't know. The possibility is there, but since it is unfounded it is a grave sin to assume he did.

Other than that, while I agreed with the nun most of the time, it is clear the producers wanted to portray habited, strict orders as sinister and progressive liberals as saintly. The extras with the Sisters of Charity is simply depressing - and they wonder why liberal convents are empty. Even though they didn't mean it, in their "Second Vatican Council is so great because it meant change, change, change" they recognized their own failure in their 'liberalizing", in that they no longer experience the life of a religious order.

It's not a movie worth buying for me, but it was worth watching. 3 stars.