I usually don’t care much for movies that win a bunch of awards. I tend to find them boring and/or pretentious. For the most part, this was no exception.

Hoffman plays a priest at an elementary school where Streep’s a tough as nails and sometimes cruel principal/nun. Amy Adams is an innocent, kind nun/teacher. Things happen involving the school’s first black student leading Streep to accuse the priest of molesting him…I think. They never come out and say ANYTHING, just dance around it, which is one of the things that bugged me.

In one scene the principal is talking to the boy’s mother, telling her what she believes. The mother says he’ll just have to endure it, more or less because he needs to graduate from that school for good high school options. This is taking place back in the late 50’s so her state of mind isn’t as cold as it sounds. She goes on to say something that leads me to believe that the boy might be gay? And his father hates him because of that and beats him. But that’s not clear either because that dance around it as well.

The movie ends with the principal more or less blackmailing the priest into transferring. He never admits to wrongdoing and in fact keeps insisting he’s innocent. But it’s not completely clear. There’s…doubt.