Watching a drama about child abuse in the Catholic Church may not be your ideal way of spending your precious weekend hours. Still, that is what we are offered by this week’s Flics installment in John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt,” based on his play of the same name. Despite the thoroughly depressing subject matter, “Doubt” is a thought-provoking and unexpectedly subtle examination of a very sensitive, complicated issue.

“Doubt,” set in 1964 in the Bronx, revolves around 3 principal characters: Father Flynn, the charismatic, accessible parish priest clearly influenced by the progressive ideals of the Vatican II Council (still ongoing at the time); Sister Aloysius, the Draconian principal of the St. Nicholas school; and Sister James, an innocent and very well-intentioned young nun. Sister James shares her suspicion of the personal relationship between Father Flynn and Donald, the school’s single, ostracized African-American student, with Sister Aloysius, setting off Sister Aloysius’ quest to have Father Flynn removed from the school. In the whirlwind of mistrust, accusation and confrontation that follows, the viewer’s sympathies flip-flop so wildly between the characters, any kind of moral (never mind factual) certainty is essentially unobtainable. We never find out whether Father Flynn truly abused Donald (I would’ve put a spoiler alert there, but c’mon, the film is called “Doubt”), but we are left with the feeling that something must be wrong with these people; it may be physical abuse, or their mistrust of one another, or it may just be the misconception that it is possible to be morally certain in the first place.

Shanley sets the tone for the ambiguous nature of the story’s conflict through his moody use of lighting and shadow; off-kilter camera angles emphasize the tension in the confrontations between Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn. The strength of the film, though, lies in a trio of performances that refuse to be ignored, with Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman chewing the scenery to bite-sized portions as Aloysius and Flynn. The third unforgettable piece of acting, however, does not belong to Amy Adams as Sister James, whose inexplicable antebellum-era bonnet allows little emotion besides wide-eyed innocence to escape. Instead, Viola Davis, playing Donald’s mother, absolutely steals the show in a single, mesmerizing scene that completely alters Sister Aloysius’ (and the viewer’s) view of the situation. Combined with the stimulating debate you’re sure to have with your friends coming out of the theater, Davis, Streep and Hoffman makes “Doubt” well worth a watch.