Without a Doubt

Saw Doubt today. The first thing most people know about Doubt is acting powerhouses Meryl Streep and Phillip Seymour Hoffman face off. The trailers did a good job in promoting this perception and one of the strongest things about this film is two of the most acclaimed people in showbiz pull out all the stops to create spine tingling performances. Streep and Hoffman do all they have promised to do their whole careers and that’s amaze audiences. However, my favourite performance in Doubt comes from another acclaimed actor, Amy Adams, who has had so many Oscar nominations in her short mainstream career it’s ridiculous. Hopefully she doesn’t end up like poor Leo Dicaprio and practically get nominated for an Oscar for every role yet never manage to take home the golden statue. Moving on, Adams is brilliant and her performance is nearly as good as her breakout role in Junebug and Enhcanted. Doubt is heavy, hard hitting and confronts more issues than Wiona Ryder in a group therapy session. But if you’re not looking to sit through almost two hours of fluff and want something substantial from you’re cinema outing then Doubt is the way to go. Based on the Pulitzer and Tony award winning play Doubt is set in 1964 and centres on a nun who confronts a priest after suspecting him abusing a black student.. He denies the charges and the remainder of the film follows a power struggle between the two. The dialogue is fired quickly and themes of religion, morality, race, equality and authority are tackled without a moments pause. The writer of the original play, John Patrick Stanley, makes his second directorial outing in 18-years and to his credit succeeds in setting the mood for his subject material to shine. Sometimes the camera angles he uses are odd and it’s quite obvious what he’s trying to do for the audience. My problem with Doubt is although it’s a movie, it feels like a play. It IS a play. The scenes are long, the sets are minimal and the acting is fierce. I think Doubt would have been magnificent as a play but as a film it doesn’t really work. It’s still good but I feel that’s because of the messages more than the quality. Interesting none the less.