Doubt

The film "Doubt" will have you thinking, talking , and debating. I have not experienced such good acting as we got from Meryl Streep (Sister Aloysius), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Father Flynn), Amy Adams (Sister James), and Viola Davis (the boy's mother) last night. The setting was perfect. The East Bronx of 1964 was filmed to a "T." St. Nicholas (actually St. Aloysius of Shanley's youth) was complete with unturned around altar. One anachronism was the use of the Taize chant version of "Ubi Charitas Ibi Est" at the end. I also wonder if there should not have been a lectern on the espistle side.

Mark Moring interviews John Patrick Shanley in Christianity Today. Lauren A.E. Schuker interviews Philip Seymour Hoffman in the Wall Street Journal.

Two initial comments. Fr. Flynn did not seem all that "charismatic" to me. The Principal I remember from my Catholic school was a bit more human than Shanley would like us to believe that type was.