From The Magdalene Sisters to the Oscar-nominated documentary Deliver Us From Evil, the Catholic church has been shown no mercy when it comes to cinema depictions of abuse.
 
Taking a step back, writer-director John Patrick Stanley’s assured drama takes a flimsy accusation of impropriety and fashions around it a coldly compelling analysis of moral certainty in an age when America was plagued by doubt.
 
It’s 1964, shortly after the Kennedy assassination and just before the US would be plunged headlong into the Vietnam War. In New York City, St Nicholas in the Bronx is a typical inner-city church and school.
 
The vibrant, charismatic Father Flynn (Seymour Hoffman) is attempting to push through enlightened measures ranging from the admittance of the first black pupil  to including secular pop songs – Frosty the Snowman - in the Christmas pageant.
 
Rigidly opposed to any breach of centuries-old dogma is Streep’s iron-gloved Principal Sister Aloysius Beauvier, a pinched ultra-conservative who carries a chill wherever she walks and thinks ballpoint pens are the work of the devil.
 
(Interestingly, the Pope with whom she seems to identify – she has a framed portrait of him - is Pope Pius XII, the notorious alleged appeaser of the Nazis during WWII).
 
When the well-meaning but naïve young nun Sister James (Adams) comes to her with the claim that Father Flynn is paying too much attention to the black pupil, Sister Aloysious cursorily dismisses any contrary evidence and pursues a unstoppable vendetta.
 
It’s Streep’s unshakeable moral conviction, unfettered by reason or compassion, that terrifies here while Seymour Hoffman confers a terrible resignation to his plight made all the more poignant with the knowledge he’s done nothing wrong,
 
Adding another rich variable is Viola Davis as the boy’s mother, who reasons that – despite the allegations of abuse – if her son can weather it out then he could land a coveted college place.
 
Despite it’s theatrical origins (some exterior scenes are shot outdoors because they could), this is immensely powerful drama, beautifully played and delivering an emotional punch that offers a small glimmer of hope.
 
It’s classy stuff, no doubt.

Tim Evans