Delayed Reaction: Doubt

Premise: Nuns working at a school in the 1960s confront their priest about his suspicious relationship with a student.

 

Doubt is one of those movies that I put off forever even though I knew I'd like it. After all it stars Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis (all Oscar nominated). It's written and directed by John Patrick Shanely* (also Oscar nominated). At absolute worst, this movie would be highly watchable. However, it's a hard movie to get excited about. Everyone is dressed in drab blacks and whites. It's hard to get excited about anything with old school Catholicism. It's based on a play, so it's certain to be talky. The specific subject matter (child molestation) is a hard sell. So, I kept putting it off.

 

*Such a weird filmography as a director. Just Doubt and Joe Versus the Volcano (which I’ve come to really love). Those are no similar movies at all.

 

I finally got to the movie now, and, no surprise, it's good. It isn't my favorite Meryl performance. Instead, it's the type we take for granted. This is one of her forgettable performances and it would be a career best for most people. It's weird how likable Philip Seymour Hoffman was as a public figure given though he had a real knack for playing creeps. As a comparison, I’m sure Peter Sarsgaard is a perfectly nice guy, but I’d be a little uneasy if I ever met him. Hoffman sows just enough doubt into his performance to make it genuinely engaging. Amy Adams is effortless. She better be getting that Oscar soon, because I forget how long she's been this good. And props to Viola Davis for getting an Oscar nomination on what's practically a one-scene role. She earned it too.

 

Mostly, the movie does a good job masking the fact that it's based on a play. It adds in enough short scenes, especially early on so that it doesn't feel like 10 really long conversations packaged as a movie. It drops that effort later on when I really was sucked in enough to want the scenes to keep going. I nearly followed this up with Spotlight, but I figured that would be a questionable double-feature.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend