On December 12, 2008, as millions of American Catholics prepare to celebrate Christmas, Miramax films is releasing a film called "Doubt." It is based on a Pulitzer Prize and Tony award-winning play. In the words of PBS' Charlie Rose, who has featured the work twice on his show, the play "examines child molestation in the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960's."
In the forthcoming film, Meryl Strep stars as an old-school, "iron-gloved" principal and nun "who believes in the power of fear and discipline." Judging from the trailer, she comes across as likable as a cold sore. Philip Seymour Hoffman, who looks like he hasn't slept in three months, stars as Father Flynn, a "vibrant, charismatic priest" (read: "liberal") who is "trying to upend the school's strict customs." Flynn is suspected of "paying too much personal attention" to a male student, yet there is no hard evidence of any wrongdoing. Viewers are supposedly left to judge for themselves the innocence or guilt of the suspected priest. Hence the title "Doubt." Get it?
So, what's the problem? For starters, Miramax already has a well-established catalog of vehemently anti-Catholic films: "Priest," "Butcher Boy," "Dogma," "40 Days and 40 Nights," and "The Magdalene Sisters."
