*** Official DOUBT Discussion Thread

(Moved from what is now the Official Review thread.)

I've been holding back any comments on Doubt, because I want to hear other people's reactions. I don't come to the film "fresh", having seen the original stage production twice; so I bring a lot of baggage to the movie that most viewers won't have.

Shanley kept the basic story and much of the original dialogue, but he substantially reshaped the play for the screen. The result is almost half an hour longer than the play, which lasted only 90 minutes and hurtled forward like a theatrical juggernaut. The film takes more time to set the scene, and I can't tell whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Patrick, in light of your review, what did you think of Viola Davis as the boy's mother? For me, in both the play and the movie, that character's appearance midway through is like a punch in the gut. I've always admired Davis, but this may be the finest work I've ever seen her do. (It's a great part; the actress who did it on Broadway won the Tony.)

Re: *** Official DOUBT Discussion Thread

Shanley designed the play so that no one could prove either way what happened. People would walk out arguing intensely over their theories. Shanley even refused to tell the actors, and the actors would shift their performances from night to night, depending on how the audience seemed to be reacting. If the audience seemed to be leaning in favor of Father Flynn, the actor playing him (Brian F. O'Byrne, most recently cousin Colin on Brotherhood) would make him subtly more sinister, and the actress playing Sister Aloysius (Cherry Jones, currently the President on 24) would soften her character. If the audience seemed to be leaning against him, Father Flynn would be played more gentle and mild, and Sister Aloysius would be even more of a battle-axe.

Obviously, film doesn't allow for that kind of flexibility. But my real concern with the film is that it has to show you too much. On stage you never saw Donald Miller, or any other student. They were left to your imagination. The film shows you much more detail, which means that Shanley, as both writer and director, has to work much harder to keep everything in balance and uncertain. I'm not sure he succeeds. There's something much more obviously "off" about the film's Father Flynn. In the play you were never sure about him. (Well, I wasn't. Other audience members were as certain as Sister Aloysius.)

Shanley has said that he was inspired to write the play after observing that the dominant mode of discourse today is one of certainty, and that so many people today are like Sister Aloysius: brooking no opposition, passionately committed to a point of view, unable to conceive of any alternative, and almost dumbstruck when confronted with a reality that stubbornly refuses to conform to their vision of the world (as when Mrs. Miller comes to the principal's office). Shanley set out to write a drama in which that kind of certainty would be tested, but he didn't want to make it easy; so he put that certainty in the service of a noble cause. I think he created one of the great plays of American literature. I'm just not sure what to make of the film version.

Re: *** Official DOUBT Discussion Thread

I completely agree. It could be nothing more than a bookish, introverted personality. This was, after all, an era before Bill Gates, so that being a nerd was not yet a legitimate option. Mr. Miller may well have considered Donald a "sissy" for no reason other than not being a jock.

My wife and I have been arguing about this since we saw the play. She's with Sister Aloysius and thinks that's Flynn's resignation is a confession of misdeeds with children at his prior post. But after watching how aggressively Father Flynn pushes the kinder, gentler Catholic Church, you have to wonder whether Sister Aloysius was the first old-school figure he crossed. It's just as possible that he ran into similar hostility at a previous post, and the monsignor reassigned him for a fresh start.

Of course, we as an audience can't help but bring our knowledge of the many scandals that subsequently affected the American Catholic Church due to problem priests being transferred instead of disciplined (or arrested). But suspicions aren't knowledge, which is precisely the point.

Re: *** Official DOUBT Discussion Thread

I think it's just the latter. Remember, this was an era of much greater conformity in matters of appearance and grooming, and all the more so in institutions like St. Nicholas.

Re: *** Official DOUBT Discussion Thread

A variation would be that she doubts whether it was a wise thing to let her own certainty dictate her actions. Everyone might have been better off if she'd left it alone, as Mrs. Miller begged her to do.