Doubt (15)

Alison Rowat's Review

Intrigue, ecclesiastical politics, suspicion and plenty of close-quarters shouting: if you’re partial to muscular, Oscar-baiting drama, John Patrick Shanley is your man this weekend.

Written and directed by Shanley (Moonstruck) from his own Pulitzer-winning play, Doubt brings together two of acting’s biggest beasts, Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and allows the tiny but estimable Amy Adams to stand between them as they snap their jaws at each other. It’s winter in the Bronx, 1964, and Sister Aloysius (Streep) is exerting her customary icy grip on her church-run school and its male pupils. Balancing her is the kindly Father Flynn (Seymour Hoffman), who sees it as his job to be the boys’ friend as well as spiritual guide. When one of the pupils begins to behave strangely, Sister Aloysius wants to know why. The truth, as she sees it, must out – whatever the consequences.

The fiercely scrubbed, pink-eyed Streep, with an accent that’s part Boston Irish, part Dutch (and probably accurate to within a centimetre of the locality), is magnificent.

The entire picture is an acting masterclass, with each player given room and time to say their set piece.

Not one but two of the supporting cast – Amy Adams, as sister James, and Viola Davis, as the boy’s mother – are up for Oscars, along with Streep and Seymour Hoffman.

Despite all the emoting – or rather because of it – Doubt comes across as stagey and hollow when it should be deep, intriguing and heartfelt. Although there’s the odd spark between Streep and Seymour Hoffman, only Adams seems genuinely enlivened by the material.

Adding to the sense of claustro-phobia is the dark, cloistered setting of the school.

An accomplished picture, then, but not one to ruffle the soul.

Paul Greenwood's Review

With the stars of Doubt (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and Viola Davis) all nominated for Oscars, there’s little doubt about its acting pedigree.

Streep is mesmerising as the ultra-strict Sister Aloysius, teaching at a New York school in 1964. She has some concerns about Father Flynn (Hoffman), so when Sister James (Adams) thinks there might be something untoward going on with one of the boys, Sister Aloysius is quick to judge.

There are elements of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, as accusations arise seemingly out of thin air, while the weighty, delicate subject matter is handled soberly.

On the evidence presented to us, Father Flynn is a good teacher and a friend to the boys.

He’s forward thinking, believing they should be more approachable, more involved in the community.

Does Sister Aloysius just not like him because of that, or is there something more?

Director John Patrick Shanley, who adapts from his own play, hasn’t made a film for almost 20 years and slightly overdoes the chilly, wintry atmosphere, while the wonky camera angles are just plain wrong.

But this is a film for actors, with Hoffman warm and believable and Adams showing some steel after starting out a little too cutesy.

Davis plays the mother of the boy involved with a truly remarkable take on the situation, and she shines in her one scene.