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On the surface, Doubt—first the play and now the film, opening Friday—could be described as a story about a charming, charismatic priest who may or may not have sexually abused a young boy in his parish's Catholic school.

John Patrick Shanley

But John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer-prize winning story is about so much more than that. It's about, as the title says, a quest for truth, and the doubts and certainties that inevitably crop up along the way.

Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Father Flynn, the aforementioned priest. Meryl Streep stars as Sister Aloysius, the stern school principal who is certain—despite no physical evidence—that Flynn has gone too far with one of the boys. And Amy Adams plays Sister James, the epitome of grace and innocence who isn't nearly so sure as her principal about Father Flynn; she is, indeed, nagged by doubts.

So, while "Did he or didn't he?" is certainly an anticipated audience reaction, Shanley hopes viewers will consider the situation—and their own doubts and certainties—on a deeper level. Shanley says it's fine to embrace doubt, and even more, he says it's wrong to embrace any sort of certainty, "because it ends the conversation."

Doubt is semi-autobiographical, in that it's set in a Catholic school in the Bronx similar to the one Shanley attended as a child—run by the Sisters of Charity and led by a strict principal. But he says he wrote the play because he "felt surrounded by a society that seemed very certain about a lot of things.

"Everyone had a very entrenched opinion, but there was no real exchange, and if someone were to say, 'I don't know,' it was as if they would be put to death in the media coliseum. There was this mask of certainty in our society that I saw hardening to the point that it was developing a crack—and that crack was doubt."

CT Movies recently interviewed Shanley to discuss the film further.

I have not seen the play, but one of the critics here in Chicago said the film left even more doubt in the viewer's mind than the play. Do you agree?

John Patrick Shanley: I have no idea. What goes on in people's minds, I can't tell you. I've done about ten Q&A things after screenings, and people say things like, "Obviously the old nun is insane." And then other people just shout that person down: "Are you out of your mind? She's a hero." Every audience is different. People get up and say with utter certainty that they know the priest is guilty, and that they know everyone in the audience knows that, too. And then other people say, "Actually, no, we don't feel that way at all." It's a very strange thing to watch happen.

Is that what you hoped would happen, that people would walk way with a bunch of different …

Shanley: What I'm hoping for is that people will at first feel confirmed in their prejudices, and the have their prejudices explode and then go, "You know what? I don't know what's right and what's wrong in this story. But it's a compelling story, and I think I want to talk about it." I want to foster discourse in the audience, because I think that's what we need more than anything else in our society now—for people to start to talk to each other without massive assumptions. I think we've had enough of people yelling at each other. We really need to talk.

There isn't always a winner, is there?

Shanley: No. And we are all breathing the same air. It's time we woke up and realized that we're in this together and we really need to talk to each other. There's great challenges ahead in society. This is a time of great change. And change brings wonderful things and terrible things. And really need to be paying attention right now.

Shanley on the set with Meryl Streep

Why did you decide to make this into a movie?

Shanley: Infinitely more people will see it as a film, and that alone is a great thing. And I hadn't directed a film in 18 years. When [producer Scott Rudin] asked me to direct it, I thought it's now or never. And I thought, I know everything about this place. I went to that church school. I'm from that neighborhood. And nobody else is going to be able to render those details like I can because I was there.

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