Doubt

Cherry Jones is Sister Aloysius and Brian O'Byrne is Father Flynn in a classic struggle at a Catholic school between the Sister's dogmatic conviction and the Father's progressive compassion. Or is that compassion a smokescreen for child molestation? With priestly hanky-panky so much in the headlines these days, we're apt to jump on board the bandwagon with the Sister's suspicions even before there are solid facts powering it forward.

We're back in 1964, the early days of Pope Paul VI's reformist papacy -- when women's powers as decision-makers are still nil. But it's Father Flynn who seems most transported by crusading zeal, reaching out to the first African-American to enroll at St. Nicholas school in the Bronx. In her nun's habit, Jones's zeal is prosecutorial. Her steely Aloysius presides in the principal's office more like a bird of prey than a mother hen, instantly elevating suspicion of Father Flynn to certainty.

To gather damning evidence against Flynn, Aloysius enlists Sister James. Still enraptured by her commitment to Christ, the young idealist finds the inquisition unsavory. Sister James is charmed and counseled by Flynn, a man who's more prone to see the virtues of remaining in doubt. "In pursuit of wrongdoing, one steps away from God," Sister Aloysius tells Sister James with chilling self-knowledge, still gung-ho on making the journey.

Additional surprises tighten the tension when the allegedly molested boy's mother is summoned for a conference in Sister's office -- and we get our first scary inkling that the dogmatic Aloysius is no stranger to political and moral compromise. All the cast is superb as this taut drama careens to its haunting denouement. But Jones is clearly the standout in one of the first great theater roles of the new century.