Set in 1964, Doubt takes place in a Catholic school in the Bronx as the old and the new are set to clash over an alleged bit of wrong-doing. John Patrick Shanley wrote and directed the feature based on his stage play of the same name and has brought a choice cast to bring his story to the big screen. At one end is Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep), the distrusting witch of a nun who has set out to prove Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) has involved himself in inappropriate ways with the school’s first black student. The film finds its tension relief in Sister James (Amy Adams), an overly chipper nun serving as the polar opposite to the strict approach brought to the screen by Streep. Everything comes together in a film that isn’t as powerful as it potentially could have been, but as an actor’s piece, and a film that should incite some conversation, it truly succeeds.
Doubt depends greatly on its actors to be at the top of their game as Shanley directs his first feature film in 18 years following the bust that was Joe Versus the Volcano in 1990. I can’t say he is now an overly accomplished director as a few snips here and there would have made the title of this film a bit more relevant, even though I left the theater with a bit more doubt in Father Flynn’s guilt than a lot of the other folks I have spoken to since. However, where the film struggles with its title’s motive it succeeds in formulating a scenario in creating a good vs. evil scenario where all the characters involved carry more than a little of each trait.
Streep delivers an Oscar-worthy performance, outside of a final moment of blubbering, as she creates a character so icy cold I wouldn’t dare cross her. It is a performance that makes the casting of Amy Adams all that much more perfect as anyone that has seen either Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day or Enchanted can already assume. Adams has a fairy tale way about her and it seems as if creating a bubbly good natured character isn’t much of a stretch. Sister James is often seen as a deer caught in the headlights and the idea of wrong-doing just isn’t something her brain is able to comprehend.
As great as Streep, Adams and Hoffman are, the powerhouse performance comes from none of the films leads or top names. Instead it comes from Viola Davis who plays the allegedly violated young boy’s mother. Limited to what must be ten minutes of screen time at most, whether she knew it or not, the film hinged on Davis’ ability to bring into question what the entire first half of this film was about. Her performance brings an emotion to this film that it needed to carry-on and on top of that her character brought a whole new level of moral dilemmas to the forefront. Davis’ performance is the film’s turning point and while the story struggles to maintain its momentum throughout the third act it holds on just long enough to deliver an ultimately satisfying feature.
Where Doubt finds fault in its theatrical incarnation is where it would have succeeded on stage. Close-ups and the slightest gestures are easier to scrutinize on the big screen and weigh much heavier on the storyline than they would from a chair gazing at the stage. This is where Shanley would have been better off cutting a few moments from the tail end of his picture if he wanted to increase the ambiguity and really get the opinions flowing. As it turns out, Doubt is an excellent actor’s piece filled with fantastic performances and just the right actors to play each of them. It also doesn’t hurt it is a gorgeous film to look at as Roger Deakins’ cinematography works wonders just as it has already two times already this year with The Reader and Revolutionary Road.
