DVD Review: ‘Doubt’

When I saw the trailer for this movie before it hit theaters I knew that everyone in the film would be taking home the hardware during the Academy Awards. With a cast that boasts Philip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis this movie fell a little bit short. There is a lot of build up for something that doesnt really have a payout.

Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a priest who gets accused of some rather unsavory things when he starts paying special attention to a new student at the school. Meryl Streep and Amy Adams play the two nuns who take it into their own hands to bring their suspicions to light. When Sister Aloysius Beauvier(Streep) starts to dig, she doesnt like what she finds and eventually leads to demand things of Father Brendan Flynn(Hoffman) or risk public humiliation. I wont go into the plot any further than that, as I may have already given away too much.

The movie has some amazing performances but the script lacked a little bit of something that probably got left on the cutting room floor. Hoffman and Viola Davis, who plays the boys mother, give very powerful and moving performances, ones that you wont soon forget. The entire cast is well deserving of all the nominations and with a stronger script/story there is no doubt it would have won out. This movie is definitely one that needs to be seen.

The DVD about 40 minutes of bonus features which include ‘From Stage To Screen’, ‘Scoring Doubt’, ‘The Sisters Of Charity’. I really liked ‘From State to Screen’ because it gives you a glimpse of going from a stage play to a feature length movie.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5