Themes of certainty and suspicion underpin writer/director John Patrick Shanley’s film, adapted from his own Tony award-winning stage play of the same name, set in a 1960s Catholic school.

In this hermetically sealed world of religion and rules, Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) rules with an iron fist.

Trouble erupts when painfully naive Sister James (Amy Adams) confides to her ferocious superior that Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) has “taken an interest” in one of the boys, Donald Miller (Joseph Foster II).

When the head nun learns that Father Flynn spent time alone in the rectory with Donald, she draws unsavoury conclusions, despite protestations from Sister James.

Inviting Father Flynn into her office with Sister James as a witness, Aloysius confronts the man of God, determined to bully him into a confession of guilt.

Instead, he pleads innocence and sparks a silent war of wits between them.

The situation spirals out of control when Sister Aloysius contacts Donald’s mother (Viola Davis) to tell her of the supposed facts.

Like Frost/Nixon, the film version of Doubt lacks the immediacy and some of the palpable tension of the stage version but Shanley’s adaptation of his own source material is still a riveting game of cat and mouse.

Streep devours the screen, eyes burning with indignation as the nun pursues her vendetta, engaging in some terrific verbal skirmishes with Hoffman’s besieged priest.

Adams provides the meek voice of reason while Davis is stunning in just 10 minutes of screen time, taking our breath away with her character’s reaction to the unfounded allegations of child abuse.

The balance of power shifts, our loyalties are torn and like Sister James, we try to remain unbiased in the eye of the storm.