The film version of the John Patrick Shanley play for me shows the best performance of Meryl Streep in the 21st century. As the very strict sister Aloysius, the principal at a Bronx Catholic school, it is her job to make the children fear her and tow the line, and even in Sunday mass, she is not one to avoid stepping up and discipline them. Being sent to her office is worse than a prison sentence, because her cold stare and hard words of discipline will cut the victim to the quick. Haven't been to Catholic schools in grade school, dealing with a principal like this would lead to nightmares for me, especially after watching the witch in "The Wizard of Oz". The nuns in the school do not wear the traditional habits, but long black flowing Cape like dresses and bonnets instead of wimples. Sister Aloysius is the only one with this type of coldness in the school. The younger nuns, particularly the one played by Amy Adams, are warm and discipline only when they need to, and the older nuns are sweet and grandmotherly. But as the audience learns later, Sister Aloysius came late to the convent, a war widow with a lot of bitterness attached to her life.
On the opposite side of the spectrum is priest Philip Seymour Hoffman, his greatest green performance and the one for which he will always be remembered. He represents the new Catholicism to the very traditional Streep who isn't happy that the church is changing as a result of Vatican II. She wants to keep the status quo the same, utilizing the winds as a metaphor for things she doesn't like. Hoffman on the other hand, wants to bring a lighter relationship between the working-class neighborhood and the church officials, and especially create a bond with the students that makes them respect them but not fear them. Streep's Sister Aloysius is definitely a bully, but in her performance, Streep indicates so much more underneath that hard demeanor that shows that even with her determination to prove Hoffman guilty as inappropriate behavior, there is a doubt that challenges her determination and especially her quest for power which he has gained in her position as principal.
The issue of the film is not about the suspicion of molestation, but whether making assumptions based on suspicions is justified, and the aggressive way in which Sister Aloysius pursues her cause. She has a long, magnificent scene with the fantastic Viola Davis, playing the mother of the young black boy whom Hoffman has been mentoring. Davis dominates that scene and that accelerated her rise to becoming one of the most prominent actresses in the 21st Century. The film is very powerful because it is not going to make you find Hoffman guilty or not guilty, and nor does it make you judge Streep for actions that would make her instantly hateable had she not balanced it out with little nuances that are subtly revealed. For me, it is a film about ethical decision-making, and the subject surrounding that in this film is basically supporting to that philosophy of finding all the facts before you make a decision on whether or not something was right or wrong and how to proceed with it. That indeed makes a powerful drama and one of the great stage adaptions to film in many years.
On the opposite side of the spectrum is priest Philip Seymour Hoffman, his greatest green performance and the one for which he will always be remembered. He represents the new Catholicism to the very traditional Streep who isn't happy that the church is changing as a result of Vatican II. She wants to keep the status quo the same, utilizing the winds as a metaphor for things she doesn't like. Hoffman on the other hand, wants to bring a lighter relationship between the working-class neighborhood and the church officials, and especially create a bond with the students that makes them respect them but not fear them. Streep's Sister Aloysius is definitely a bully, but in her performance, Streep indicates so much more underneath that hard demeanor that shows that even with her determination to prove Hoffman guilty as inappropriate behavior, there is a doubt that challenges her determination and especially her quest for power which he has gained in her position as principal.
The issue of the film is not about the suspicion of molestation, but whether making assumptions based on suspicions is justified, and the aggressive way in which Sister Aloysius pursues her cause. She has a long, magnificent scene with the fantastic Viola Davis, playing the mother of the young black boy whom Hoffman has been mentoring. Davis dominates that scene and that accelerated her rise to becoming one of the most prominent actresses in the 21st Century. The film is very powerful because it is not going to make you find Hoffman guilty or not guilty, and nor does it make you judge Streep for actions that would make her instantly hateable had she not balanced it out with little nuances that are subtly revealed. For me, it is a film about ethical decision-making, and the subject surrounding that in this film is basically supporting to that philosophy of finding all the facts before you make a decision on whether or not something was right or wrong and how to proceed with it. That indeed makes a powerful drama and one of the great stage adaptions to film in many years.