moviefreak

If you want to watch a movie that makes you wonder and doubt about many things, then this is the one for you. It’ll take you back to the past, a year after President Kennedy’s death. What can you expect from this movie? Questions and EXCELLENT acting, of course. I’ll give this movie a 7.9 stars out of 10.

Oh yeah, just found out that this movie is based on a play written by John Patrick Shanley and it’s won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as two other awards. Remember that it’s rated PG-13 for thematic material, though!

The Story:

Bronx 1964. In a Catholic school runs by a SUPER strict and conservative/rigid nun named Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep) comes a new 8th grade teacher Sister James (Amy Adams), a very innocent and kind young woman. Sister Aloysius always tries to monitor Sister James in teaching her students. She’s also very suspicious of her superior, Father Brendan Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who leads the congregation of the church and who’s a liberal person. She explains to Sister James that she should tell her everything so that she can take actions to solve the problems.

In the beginning of the story, two of the students become altar boys. One of them is a new student, a black boy named Donald Miller (Joseph Foster). It’s clear from the start that Donald doesn’t have any friends there, especially since he’s the only black boy among the white students. Therefore, Father Brendan tries to take him under his wings. One time during a lesson, Father Brendan calls Donald to his office and after Donald comes back to the classroom, Sister James notices that his attitude changes.

One day Sister James catches Father Brendan putting Donald’s undershirt into his locker. This raises her suspicion, so she shares this suspicion to Sister Aloysius, who is convinced that Father Brendan has done bad things to the boy. They try to confront Father Brendan about this matter, but he is appalled and he refuses to tell them anything. He just says that their suspicion is wrong and that he has done nothing wrong.

The innocent Sister James is now feeling such a huge guilt, so she can’t sleep well at nights anymore. Meanwhile, Sister Aloysius is still bent on getting Father Brendan to confess about all the bad things he’s done, so she’s planning to trap him to do so.

What will Sister Aloysius do? Will Father Brendan confess? Is he really guilty or is Sister Aloysius’ assumption totally wrong? Expect confrontation between Father Brendan and Sister Aloysius reaching the peak!!!!!

Notes:

1. I find the theme intriguing because I once read that if you’ve already formed an assumption about something or someone, then your brain WILL automatically look for signs that can “prove” that assumption.

2. This movie touches reality and prods my doubt, as well. It leaves me with some questions:

a. How can I be so sure about my assumptions? Are sometimes my assumptions right? Or are they mostly or always wrong?

b. Is “the right thing to do” better than “compassion and forgiveness”?

c. How far is the limit for me in order to prove the truth (and basically to prove that my assumptions are right)?