Meryl Streep

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Amy Adams

Viola Davis

Alice Drummond

Audrie Neenan

Susan Blommaert

Carrie Preston

John Costelloe

Lloyd Clay Brown

Joseph Foster

Bridget Megan Clark

Mike Roukis

Frank Shanley

Frank Dolce

Paulie Litt

Matthew Marvin

Molly Chiffer

Lydia Jordan

Suzanne Hevner

Helen Stenborg

Tom Toner

Michael Puzzo

Margery Beddow

Jack O'Connell

Marylouise Burke

Alannah Iacovano

Valda Setterfield

Gerard Adimando

George Aloi

James P. Anderson

Jackie Brown

Jonathan Castillo

Jennifer Lauren DiBella

Seth Donavan

Brian Hopson

Evan Lewis

Bernadette Lords

Jenny Paul

Robert Shulman

Felicia Tassone

Steph Van Vlack

Robert Ridgell

Roger Deakins

Dylan Tichenor

Scott Rudin

John Patrick Shanley

Jennifer Lamb

Michael Queen

Celia D. Costas

David Gropman

Zoran Blazevic

John Spady

Jennifer Lane

Peter Rogness

Ellen Christiansen

Deb Dyer

Nora Skinner

Amelia Rasche McCarthy

Ellen Chenoweth

Mark Roybal

Joe Guest

Matthew H. Wiesner

Ann Roth

Dianne Dreyer

Patty Willett

David Davenport

Howard Shore

Peter Bucossi

Michael Hatzer

Drama

Doubt

Scott Rudin Productions

Goodspeed Productions

Miramax

United States of America

Knee-deep in the throes of my first love, I was quite surprised to hear that my lady's favourite movie was 'Joe Versus the Volcano'. (I still haven't seen the film). It dawned on me, when I wanted to check out an American film which, to my knowledge, had a plethora of fine acting, that this was written and directed by the same guy who made that film much earlier. Being raised Christian and hearing in the press over the past few years about misdeeds, especially involving leaders of the Catholic church (represented in films as diverse as 'The Boys of St. Vincent' (John N. Smith, 1992) and 'In Bruges' (Martin McDonagh, 2008), I was especially intrigued by this, his work of more recent vintage.

The ambiguity at the core of the film (and hence the 'doubt') really acts in the movie's favour. The script and direction are both tense and flawless, and the beautiful New York locations chosen to illustrate The Bronx in 1964 help air the play out, and give it more cinematic scope. It features some of the finest work I have seen from Philip Seymour Hoffman (though my favourites will always be 'Happiness' and 'The Master'), Meryl Streep (my most-esteemed works of hers are 'The Deer Hunter' and 'The Devil Wears Prada') and Amy Adams (this is her finest performance IMHO) as well as a breakthrough role for Viola Davis, who steals every scene she's in. This easily holds up well even with Shanley's Oscar-winning screenplay for 'Moonstruck', and, though dark and depressing, is thoroughly recommended for those who can stomach its subject matter, and peer into that abyss without flinching, as these fine exemplars of 21st-century American cinema so easily do here.

That it didn't win any of its five Oscar nominations is almost as ghastly, to the cinephile, as the misdeeds insinuated here are to the community at large. Must have been a strong year for film, methinks.

CinemaSerf

There is wonderful scene in this film where "Fr. Flynn" (Philip Seymour Hoffman) tries to explain, using feathers, just how wicked gossip can be. He is the victim of such nefarious chatter - but is he guilty? Well "Sister Aloysius" (Meryl Streep) believes so. She sees the father with a student on the street outside the school, then her colleague "Sister James" (Amy Adams) mentions that another, their first young black child "Donald" (Joseph Foster), looked a bit distressed after meeting with the priest in is vestry. She is determined to get to the truth and to be rid of this man. Streep is very convincing here. She portrays a woman who, based on the thinnest of actual evidence, relies on the certainty of her belief to level accusations against the man. Using that certainly, she confronts him imploring confession but is there anything to confess? Hoffman is also effective as a man that I initially had sympathies for - he was, after all, being victimised by his colleague with no evidence from the supposed victims and the first lad - "London" (Mike Roukis) was a distinctly untrustworthy boy. Viola Davis offers just the one principal scene as the affected boy's stoic mother, and that is a potent rationalisation of not just where she felt a young black kid sat on the ladder of society at the time, but also of where she felt the church sat on her own. She is a loving mother conflicted, and this is portrayed with intensity. I wasn't sold on the ending, either way it was unsatisfactory but this is still a well crafted and thought provoking assembly of strong acting talent and a solid story.

English

Doubt - Trailer