Doubt

released: Christmas Day 2008

nominated for 5 academy awards:

Best Actress	Meryl Streep	Nominated
Best Supporting Actor	Philip Seymour Hoffman	Nominated
Best Supporting Actress	Amy Adams	Nominated
Best Supporting Actress	Viola Davis	Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay	John Patrick Shanley

1. In chapter 2 Doubt, Father Flynn lays the foundation for the film w/his sermon on the potentially unifying force that doubt can be.  Although this unification may be comforting in the short run, it allows for no long term answers when confronted w/a very real and uncertain reality that we all must face when faith is scarce.

Mark 9:23-25 (The Message)

 ²³Jesus said, "If? There are no 'ifs' among believers. Anything can happen."
 ²⁴No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the father cried, "Then I believe. Help me with my doubts!"
 ^25-27Seeing that the crowd was forming fast, Jesus gave the vile spirit its marching orders: "Dumb and deaf spirit, I command you—Out of him, and stay out!" Screaming, and with much thrashing about, it left. The boy was pale as a corpse, so people started saying, "He's dead." But Jesus, taking his hand, raised him. The boy stood up.

2.  In chapter 10 intolerance, Sisters Aloysius & James confront Father Flynn about their suspicions of his inappropriate relationship w/Donald Miller under the pretext of discussing the upcoming Christmas play.  Pretext & subtext collide to needlessly intensify a potentially volatile development as Aloysius makes her disdain for Flynn & his approach to ministry very apparent.  She arrogantly indulges her pride to step away from God to 'address wrongdoing.'

2 Timothy 2:21-23 (The Message)

 ^20-21In a well-furnished kitchen there are not only crystal goblets and silver platters, but waste cans and compost buckets—some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage. Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing.
 ^22-26Run away from infantile indulgence. Run after mature righteousness—faith, love, peace—joining those who are in honest and serious prayer before God. Refuse to get involved in inane discussions; they always end up in fights. God's servant must not be argumentative, but a gentle listener and a teacher who keeps cool, working firmly but patiently with those who refuse to obey. You never know how or when God might sober them up with a change of heart and a turning to the truth, enabling them to escape the Devil's trap, where they are caught and held captive, forced to run his errands.

3.  In the final chapter (15) one goodbye, one lie, Sister Aloysius sees her plans to purge the parish of Flynn succeed only to be overwhelmed w/regret at the price she's paid by 'stepping away from God in pursuit of wrongdoing.'  Sister James reveals that she wishes she were more like Aloysius, but it appears to be the other way around as James spends the movie close in comforting a distraught Aloysius.

1 John 1:5-7 (The Message)

Walk in the Light

 ⁵This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there's not a trace of darkness in him. ^6-7If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we're obviously lying through our teeth—we're not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God's Son, purges all our sin.