Review: ‘Doubt’

Jeremy:

With ‘Doubt’, two powerhouse actors collide in an engaging battle between what we believe and what we want to believe. There is a difference, and writer/director John Patrick Shanley, who adapted the story from his stage play, moves us back and forth between these two emotions with skillful filmmaking.

Meryl Streep plays Sister Aolysius Beauvier, an aged nun who finds very little enjoyment life and fault with everything and everyone in it. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Father Brendan Flynn, a gentle priest who Sister Beauvier believes may have formed an inappropriate relationship with an African-American boy. Amy Adams plays Sister James, the main person torn between these two sides. It is her who first notices Father Flynn’s potential actions towards the boy, and it is through her that we see most of the action.

In essence, we are Sister James, an observer in the world of these two forces. On one hand, we find a hatred within ourselves for one force, though we realize early on that it is hardly ever in the wrong. On the other hand, we have this other force that is kind and gentle, but we are uncertain of its intentions. The first is telling us the second is doing something wrong, but how can the compassion we feel coming off of it be wrong?

‘Doubt’ raises many hard-hitting questions, and it never really gives us any clear-cut answers. The dialogue dances around the issues never honing in and directly addressing what is being said. Sometimes this brand of dialogue works very well. Certain scenes between the three leads are lyrical in the dialogue and the way the actors are performing. One of Father Flynn’s sermons where he creates a parable that confronts the nature of gossip is particularly brilliant.

Other times this dancing around the issue doesn’t work so well. There are times in the film where what is truly being said is hard to read and reading between the lines becomes more and more painstaking.

In one scene, Sister Beauvier is conversing with the boy’s mother. The mother reveals something about the boy’s home life, and, for a few seconds, the conversation stops. Sister Beauvier slowly asks, “What are you telling me?† It’s the only time in the film where someone stops and asks for clarification on what is being said. Most of the time, we are left to fend for ourselves.

However, even in these moments where we are uncertain what the film is telling us, we are subject to three incredible performances. Streep is magnificent as always, and she’s given a pretty thankless role. Most veterans of her craft wouldn’t be able to generate the amount of charisma she is attains with this part. Hoffman, on the other hand, is given a more empathetic part. As Father Flynn, he exudes a level of benevolence and it’s difficult to see him as a potential villain in the story. Adams gives just the right amount of quirk to make her likeable, yet we understand her willingness to go along with whatever Sister Beauvier has planned.

All three give exceptional performances in their individual roles, yet the one scene where all three come together teeters frighteningly close to becoming hammy. It is Hoffman’s sincerity in his part that keeps this scene grounded in some kind of reality. Without the subtle earnestness he displays, the whole film could have easily toppled over into ridiculousness.

‘Doubt’ is an unyielding examination of right and wrong, certainty and reservation, that is told with tightly wound dialogue from beginning to†¦well, almost the end. There are many turns the story takes throughout the film, but there is one, final twist that practically deflates everything we’ve seen beforehand. One character reveals something about themselves, and if it was supposed to answer any more questions about them or the actions they take, it didn’t work. Without this final scene, the story works, and it works very well. With it, we are left without any wind in our sales. Any conversation after the film will, unfortunately, be monopolized by that final revelation and not the importance of what happens before it. The way the story ends may have worked better in its original format, but the disconnection that is created from it being film hinders the ending

The ending aside, ‘Doubt’ is a very well-crafted story that makes for a first-rate film. I haven’t even mentioned the impeccable camera work by Roger Deakins (‘No Country for Old Men’, ‘The Assassination of Jesse James†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢), who is becoming a staple in the business of cinematography. The questions raised by ‘Doubt’ linger in your mind well after the film is over. Even though there are certain distractions with the film, there is enough to praise it as a top-notch film.

[Overall: 3.5 stars out of 5]

Travis:

‘Doubt’ is one of these films that is adapted from it’s original source material written for the stage by it’s original author. John Patrick Shanley wrote the play on which this film is based and then adapted it into a screenplay and directed the movie. This is possibly the reason for which the film fails at the end.

The last movie experience I had like this was with ‘The Shape of Things’ (2003) written and directed by Neil LaBute, who also wrote the original stage play. I loved the play when I read it, but felt the movie didn’t properly convey the source material… at least, by my interpretation. Now, I haven’t read or seen ‘Doubt’ as a play, but I am curious having seen the movie.

Meryl Streep plays a hard-nosed traditional Catholic school nun/principal whom all the students fear. She’s bitter and cold and relentless. There is virtually nothing in this character, as portrayed, to offer any human empathy towards. There are two brief moments in which she shows her humanity, one while being questioned by the priest, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, and the other after being caught by a parent listening to a transistor radio she confiscated from a student.

Streep did a fine job, but I question whether this performance is really worthy of an Oscar. She’s given far better performances and there are far better performances from 2008 that are more deserving. With that said, Philip Seymour Hoffman was incredible as the priest who Streep is determined to expose and/or ruin, depending on what your individual interpretation of the film becomes. [We’ll talk more about this in a second.] Hoffman has garnered support for this performance as a strong supporting actor candidate for the Oscar. He is at once peaceful, kind and comfortable while at times uncertain, anxious and fearful.

‘Doubt’ is the perfect title for this film as the story is all about the doubts surrounding the characters, but also implies the doubt that the audience experiences as the story unfolds. The priest is accused of having committed a terrible act against a minor, but we are never certain of what has happened, who is right or wrong, or of who is lying or truthful. The film is structured around this idea of doubt, but the problem engages itself at the end, which is abrupt and unsatisfying. I felt cheated, especially after enduring a decent film up to this point that had captured my attention and held me prisoner in it’s assumed ordeal.

[Overall: 3 stars out of 5]