I saw the Cherry Jones stage version, and I think I remember feeling she had doubts about the actions she had taken to persecute a man who may have been innocent. Partly because her priest seemed innocent.
In the film version, which was directed by the play’s author, Shanley, I felt that Streep was wrestling with a more institutional question. Did this institution to which she’d given her life and faith really deserve so much, given how it had closed ranks against her? The final doubt was no longer about the priest’s guilt or innocence but about her own vocation. And therefore about her heart and soul. I thought it a very smart choice. (Besides, Hoffman seemed not guilty anyway, and, with Viola Davis’ hyper-weeping mother instead of Adriane Lenox’s savvy take, I was even more prone to give Hoffman’s priest a pass. He didn’t do it.) |
