Doubt Can Be As Powerful As Certainty

Doubt
2008, John Patrick Shanley.
Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis


Based on the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play, Doubt is the story of a Catholic priest and two nuns, and question whether the priest acted inappropriately with a young altar boy. When performed as a play, there was only one single act. Shanley had intended for the second act to occur after the play was over, in the thoughts and conversations of the audience as they pondered whether or not the priest was guilty.

Steph and I saw this at the Bytowne on New Years Day, and many of my friends and family have also seen the movie in that time. Everyone has had an opinion; some say he's guilty, some innocent, and some are just not sure, which is as equally valid as the first two opinions.

One friend pointed out various shots and plot points as way to come to a conclusion, but I believe those clues to merely be red herrings. In fact, I'm not sure there is an actual answer (supposedly there is, and the director and Hoffman are the only ones that know it, but as its not in the text itself, I believe it to be thus irrelevant). The purpose of the story is not to make you decide whether the priest is innocent or guilty, but to examine the way that you decide such things.

Meryl Streep gives a performance as the head nun that is subtle in the way that it is theatrically over the top. It is arguably one of her best, but the list is a very very long one, going all the way back to The Deer Hunter 30 years ago, and never missing more than a couple years in a row since. Hoffman, I believe, has the most difficult role, including his two sermons that frame the film, put comes off superbly, avoiding moments where it would have been easy to over-act. Viola Davis, although she only appears in the two scenes of one single sequence, demonstrates how determining whether the priest was right or wrong may be over simplifying things. Amy Adams, although I believe she is the weak link in the film, manages to stay afloat between the heavyweights of Streep and Hoffman.

This is a great film, and one that everyone I know that has seen it is still talking about. Playing now at all the major theatres, and for the next week or so at the Bytowne. Check it out.

5 stars out of 5