Doubt is a well-written, well-produced, and well-acted film, nominated for five Academy awards and successful in what it attempts to bring to its audience, but it goes one big step too far in its questions of ambiguity.

Doubt is meant to provoke several thoughtful questions within the viewer.  Questions which are never answered definitively in the film, the most obvious being, "Is the priest guilty?"  But it's the other questions that bring the viewer to ponder the ambiguities of life.  Was Meryl Streep's character justified in creating the issue when she lacked real proof?  Does the possibility of a molested child merit the soiled reputation of a possibly innocent man?  Is the unusual priest/student relationship immoral if it turns out it is not sexual?  Is the younger nun justified in her part of the story?  What would have been the most moral response for her?  for the older nun?  for the priest?

All questions worth pondering.  But then it goes too far.  In all its weaving of ambiguity, the film then attempts to create a scenario in which the viewer questions whether a priest/student sexual relationship is necessarily immoral.  What if the child is gay, neither he nor his mom objects to the relationship, and he wants and "needs" the protection and kindness of the priest because the other students bully him? 

This is not a viable question and does not merit the viewer's consideration.  A sexual relationship between a child and an adult is always immoral on the part of the adult. There is no possible scenario to excuse it.  Gay or straight, six years old or twelve, a child is a child, and an adult is his protector.  Children are not able to make clear judgments about such complicated issues and should never be put into such a position.  The mother in the film is the most unbelievable of characters, and her reasoning quite a stretch in the story line, but should there be someone like her in reality, even she must be ignored in favor of the higher good and future welfare of the child.  Morality does not change based on who believes it.

I like this film.  I like its throught-provoking nature.  It entertains.  It stretches.  And Meryl Streep is always excellent.  But watch with care, lest we fall into the trap of believing all is ambiguous.  There is much gray in the world, but there is much that will forever remain clearly black and white, like the treatment of all our children.