I watched this movie 3 times in 2 days. Awesome! Because it was originally written for the stage, it has a solid dialogue and the 3 principal actors Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams did much justice to it.
It was weird, the way my friends and I each digested the story. I processed it mainly through the experience I've had in my many years (7 of them full time) serving in 'church'.
I understood the wide-eyed innocence of the novice nun (Sr. James) who believes the best in people. She was the person I used to be. But when I looked at the older but wiser nun (Sr. Aloysius) who has had years of experience to figure out that people are not really who they say they are, I recognised the person I had become.
In the final part, where Sr. Aloysius says, "I have such doubts!" I had a flashback to the time I discovered that 'church' as we know it is only a man made institution. I realised that I had been trying to reconcile Christ's body and the 'church' to no avail because they can never truly be one.
You reform, revise and improvise but the changes do not last. The old nun had no doubts about the priest (Fr. Flynn). He was well and truly guilty. But she could no longer believe or defend an institution that blatantly condoned, covered and even rewarded her so-called 'Christ' representatives.
