Doubt

"Doubt"
John Patrick Shanley, 2008

“Doubt” is the film adaptation of a play about a priest who is accused by a Catholic school's principal of sexually abusing a student. In the film, the priest is played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, the severe principal by Meryl Streep, and a nun, given the unfortunate and dull role of a pawn between the two contesting powers, by Amy Adams. The problems with “Doubt” arise from its translation from a play to the screen – or, rather, the lack of much of a translation. The film is set up as a series of arguments between two to three characters within a single setting; this technique works well on-stage, but not in a film. The interactions are interesting initially, at least, but not after an hour of hearing the same issues ad nauseam: Streep's nun repeatedly states that she suspects the priest is “doing something” with the boy, but this action is never explicitly stated; the act is instead relegated to excessive implication.

At its best, “Doubt” presents us with an interesting conflict between two mindsets: one that wants to be more receptive of changes in secular society, as represented by the priest, and one that fiercely defends the status quo, as represented by the principal. Streep plays her character to the extreme, so much so that she nearly transcends the movie – her principal comes across as more of a spectacled specter than a real person. Much, or perhaps most, of her hatred for the priest stems from his “unorthodox” practices, which include being protective of the school's only black student, who is, as it turns out, also the student he is accused of abusing. Most important, then, is the way that the film presents the priest's culpability. From what I have heard, the play leaves the priest's culpability to our imagination – in other words, it leaves us doubtful of his actual culpability. The filmmakers, however, are less keen on the power of ambiguity. There is a telling shot of Hoffman's priest bashfully glancing upwards at a cross, which obviously paints him as guilty – Hoffman does his best, but he's never given a chance.

5.5/10

First Viewed: 12/17/08, in 35 mm projection - IMDb