Doubt (Blu-ray)

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Based on the Tony Award-winning off-Broadway play "Doubt: A Parable," John Patrick Shanley's film adaptation of his stage version is really enhanced by Blu-ray's clarity and 1080p High Resolution. It's a nuanced film, a stagey one that offers mostly the three main characters in dramatic discussions, in which what remains unspoken is much louder than what is said. The startling detail of Blu-ray makes it feel as if you a front-row seat at the Manhattan Theatre Club and watching a guest performance by Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams.

As in the play, the film's cat-and-mouse plot is set in motion when a new and inexperienced teacher at the St. Nicholas Church School in the Bronx, circa 1964--Sister James (Adams)--comes to the super-strict principal of the school, Sister Aloysius (Streep), with concerns about the parish priest, Father Flynn (Hoffman). He's been giving extra attention to the school's only black student, a young boy named Donald Miller (Joseph Foster). As the tagline says, "There is no evidence. There are no witnesses. But for one, there is no doubt."

Now, in the world of nuance, that "one" is supposed to be split across both sisters, but after initially bringing concerns about possible sexual contact between the boy and Father Flynn, young Sister James is filled with doubts. But not Sister Aloysius. Maybe she's seen this or suspected this before, in a case that happened prior to Donald's arrival. Maybe she just doesn't like this relatively new Father Flynn because, as the dialogue reveals, they don't see eye-to-eye or even eye-to-chest on big issues of doctrine and the handling of their young charges. Maybe she resents the structure of the church which undermines her own authority as principal, with the church and its priests technically over her and the school. Or maybe she's just a crusty old nun who's got an itchy trigger finger, ready to grab a ruler and rap anyone on the knuckles, even if it's the parish priest.

You wouldn't think that a screenplay that was mostly dialogue involving this simple premise could be so riveting, but it is, and it's because the writing is sharp and intelligent, the performances are packed with subtleties and depth, and a tone hangs over the entire production that helps sustain the tension--the kind of feeling you get when you're summoned to the principal's office and you're not sure what you did, or if you're in trouble. I still get that feeling when I'm driving down the freeway and see a cop car, even though I'm driving the speed limit. And it's here in spades. The lighting and cinematography really add to that feeling as well, with a slightly overcast look to the whole thing, as if a storm is brewing (and of course, it is).

But how much "doubt" the viewer has will depend upon whatever baggage you bring to the film. If you've got a negative feeling about priests and all the scandals that have rocked the Catholic church, you probably won't have much doubt. If you're concerned with due process you'll see so little here that you'll probably side with the accused. But if you're like Sister James--and one suspects that Shanley hopes most viewers are--you'll be bewitched, bothered, and bewildered by this morality play, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2005.

Speaking of doubt, though, I found myself wondering how in the world someone who could write a Pulitzer Prize-winning play and this intelligent screenplay could also have written "Joe Versus the Volcano" (his first and only other directorial effort). That should give aspiring writers all sorts of hope.