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Doubt (2008)

Director: John Patrick Shanley

4

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From Time Out New York

Meryl Streep still takes on a variety of different roles: Witness her flighty country singer in A Prairie Home Companion, or the manic matriarch of Mamma Mia! She’s recently shown a particular weakness for gorgons, however, and John Patrick Shanley’s screen version of his 2005 Tony-winning play allows the actor to inhabit a doozy of a character. Streep’s Sister Aloysius is indisputably the moral authority of the Bronx’s St. Nicholas, a towering presence prone to sucker-smacking students and hovering like a black-bonneted bird of prey. So when a fellow nun (Adams) suggests that they may have a predator in their midst, the sister starts sharpening her talons. It seems that Father Flynn (Hoffman) may or may not be paying undue attention to a young boy. According to Aloysius: This. Will. Not. Do.

Shanley’s decision to minimize the cinematic touches—an exterior scene here, a Dutch angle shot there—surprisingly benefits the film. Doubt works best when the performers are simply allowed to spar: A single scene between Streep and Viola Davis, who steals the show, is a series of gentle but devastating jabs, while the final confrontation between Aloysius and Flynn is akin to watching Ali take on Frazier. These heavyweights occasionally overstep in calling forth sound and fury (you sometimes wonder if they're auditioning for Doubt's theatrical production.) But credit Streep for keeping the fires raging; the fact that her performance stops the movie from becoming another trapped-in-amber adaptation is beyond a shadow of a you-know-what.

Author: David Fear 2008-12-09 19:03:21

Time Out New York Issue 689: December 11 - 17, 2008

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User reviews of this film

  • Mitch said...
    Posted on Feb 10 2009 10:38 Michale Harris (not verified) says:
    Is anyone able to enlighten me with their opinion on why Father Flyn made a point of telling the boys he had clean nails and that this made it okay to wear them long?
    This seemed to be highlighted so I assume it was significant in some way.
    Could this have been a comment meant to 'groom' them - insinuating that something might seem wrong but would be acceptable under certain conditions...? Perhaps I am reading too much into it.
    I went to a Catholic boys school and remember a certain priest whose various comments and actions that in retrospect place some 'doubt' as to what his intentions were.
    A movie was once screened at school assembly warning about 'stranger danger'. Afterward once back in the classroom, he said casually that in his opinion noone could make a boy take his pants off unless the boy wanted to.
    Meanwhile at confession, he was far more interested on whether you played with yourself than how many times you disobeyed your parents.
    There was one incident where he told me to tell my mother I needed to come in to school on a Saturday to work on a school project. Once there, he took me to lunch and a movie.
    While I can't say his motives in this case were sinister, I would say at least inapproriate.
    Perhaps more went on with some of the other lads.
    Confusingly, he was also the most popular teacher at the school and a nice guy.
    I was very shy and sensetive, and possibly he suspected I would one day become the homosexual that I am.
    Maybe it was nice having the attention.
    Perhaps our school could have done with a sister Aloysius.
    Report as inappropriate
  • Nina said...
    Posted on Feb 08 2009 14:35 Meryl Streep is astonishingly brilliant in this taut, superbly executed film. I realize I'm in the minority here, but I think this is the best film I've seen this year (and I have seen "Slumdog, which I loved, despite the poverty porn.) I'm tired of hearing about Kate Winslet (wonderful, but way over-hyped and in desperate need of a publicity vacation) and Anne (are you kidding me?) Hathaway; Meryl Streep deserves the Oscar.
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Doubt

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Cast & crew

Director: John Patrick Shanley

Cast: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis full cast

Rated: PG-13

Duration: 104 mins

US Release: Dec 12 2008

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