Running time: 104 minutes
Rating 8 out of 10
Written and directed by John Patrick Shanley, and adapted from his Pulitzer Prize-winning stageplay, Doubt is a forceful work about faith, morality and conviction. "Doubt can be a bond as powerful as certainty," states Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) during a sermon. The line succinctly encapsulates the central theme of this provocative and potent film.
It is 1964 and Flynn is a progressively minded priest at St Nicholas Church School in the Bronx. But his more liberal approach angers the school's principal, the tough, puritanical Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep). When the naïve Sister James (Amy Adams) reports that Donald Miller (Joseph Foster II), the school's first black student, acted strangely after returning to her class following a visit to see Father Flynn, Aloysius immediately assumes there had been inappropriate contact between the priest and the boy. Despite the lack of any evidence, and assurances from Flynn that nothing improper had ever transpired, Aloysius is convinced he is guilty and embarks on a mission to discredit him." You haven't the slightest proof," Flynn defends. "But I have my certainty," Aloysius declares.
Brilliantly poised, Doubt deftly avoids revealing anything that would confirm either Flynn's guilt or innocence. We have no idea who is right. That's not the issue. It's not about apportioning blame, but about raising questions of trust. It's a transformative period in America's history. Civil rights are at the forefront of the nation's domestic issues. It's a new era with a new morality. Flynn and Aloysius are from very different generations. What one may perceive as being acceptable, the other may not.
In the hands of two such accomplished actors, Shanley's words bristle. "Where is your compassion?" implores Flynn. "Nowhere you can get at it," snaps back Aloysius. The exchanges between the two are electrifying, impassioned by their faith. Streep subtly exhibits the tightly-wound repression of Aloysius as she struggles with the implications of what she has done. Streep and Hoffman are ably supported by the excellent Adams and Viola Davis who, as Donald's mother, provides Doubt with one of its most moving scenes.
If there is any criticism to be leveled at Shanley, it is that he has made the mistake many have made when adapting a work from the stage to the screen. For all the explosiveness of the characters and their words, Doubt is very static. It finds the action still confined by the limitations imposed by the theatre and what gestures Shanley does make to expand the piece are small and token. But this is but a minor quibble, for whatever the setting Doubt is a masterful work by one of America's foremost writers, featuring two of the country's finest actors. Of that there is no question.
Kevin Murphy
It is 1964 and Flynn is a progressively minded priest at St Nicholas Church School in the Bronx. But his more liberal approach angers the school's principal, the tough, puritanical Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep). When the naïve Sister James (Amy Adams) reports that Donald Miller (Joseph Foster II), the school's first black student, acted strangely after returning to her class following a visit to see Father Flynn, Aloysius immediately assumes there had been inappropriate contact between the priest and the boy. Despite the lack of any evidence, and assurances from Flynn that nothing improper had ever transpired, Aloysius is convinced he is guilty and embarks on a mission to discredit him." You haven't the slightest proof," Flynn defends. "But I have my certainty," Aloysius declares.
Brilliantly poised, Doubt deftly avoids revealing anything that would confirm either Flynn's guilt or innocence. We have no idea who is right. That's not the issue. It's not about apportioning blame, but about raising questions of trust. It's a transformative period in America's history. Civil rights are at the forefront of the nation's domestic issues. It's a new era with a new morality. Flynn and Aloysius are from very different generations. What one may perceive as being acceptable, the other may not.
In the hands of two such accomplished actors, Shanley's words bristle. "Where is your compassion?" implores Flynn. "Nowhere you can get at it," snaps back Aloysius. The exchanges between the two are electrifying, impassioned by their faith. Streep subtly exhibits the tightly-wound repression of Aloysius as she struggles with the implications of what she has done. Streep and Hoffman are ably supported by the excellent Adams and Viola Davis who, as Donald's mother, provides Doubt with one of its most moving scenes.
If there is any criticism to be leveled at Shanley, it is that he has made the mistake many have made when adapting a work from the stage to the screen. For all the explosiveness of the characters and their words, Doubt is very static. It finds the action still confined by the limitations imposed by the theatre and what gestures Shanley does make to expand the piece are small and token. But this is but a minor quibble, for whatever the setting Doubt is a masterful work by one of America's foremost writers, featuring two of the country's finest actors. Of that there is no question.
Kevin Murphy
