Doubt

2008 • 104 minutes

About this movie

Based on the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play, Doubt is a mesmerizing, suspense-filled drama with riveting performances from Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis that will have you pinned to the edge of your seat. Sister Aloysius Beauvier(Streep), the rigid and fear-inspiring principal of the Saint Nicholas Church School, suffers an extreme dislike for the progressive and popular parish priest Father Flynn(Hoffman). Looking for wrongdoing in every corner, Sister Aloysius believes she's uncovered the ultimate sin when she fears Father Flynn has taken a special interest in a troubled boy. But without proof, the only thing certain is doubt.

Ratings and reviews

A year prior to the release of the movie, my regional theater put on a production of Doubt. I wanted to see the movie version, just as a comparison and I was not disappointed. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Meryl Streep do not disappoint with superb acting. My wife said it best, after the play she was certain she knew what happened; after the movie she had changed her mind. Hoffman's performance is one of his best. I remember hearing in an interview with Hoffman that the playwright told him, in confidence, what happened with the character. The audience will never know, and that's what makes it brilliant.

This movie is tense from beginning to end. I love the story line but the ending seems to completely deflate all the effort put into the movie. With the decision she had to make there could be no doubt. I really wished the ending was different and that is why I did not give it 5 stars.

I stumbled on this movie while scrolling through channels. Honestly I had never heard of it, and when I read the plot summary I thought it would be another diatribe against organized religion. I didn't expect to like it, but it was so well-acted that I want to see it again, partly because I missed the very beginning, but also because the more I thought about it the more questions I had. There were some truly unexpected plot twists- the cold, stern Principal was married before she became a nun, for one - and some scenes that were so well-done that I want to see them again. Viola Davis' performance, as the mother of a young black student the Principal fears has been abused by a priest, is both heartbreaking and horrifying. There is Doubt everywhere in this movie. The ending was something of an abrupt surprise, and I was left wondering about the characters and their motives...who were the good guys? What was the right thing to do? Well worth renting.