Meryl Streep in a still from the movie DoubtDoubt movie cast: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Viola Davis, Philip Syemour Hoffman
Doubt movie director: John Patrick Shanley
Doubt movie rating: 5 stars
There are movies, and then there are experiences that you live through certain films. John Patrick Shanley directorial Doubt belongs to the second category. And what else could have one expected from an impressive cast featuring the likes of Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis?
What drives the film, which is ever so relevant in the #MeToo era, forward apart from the wonderful performances is John Patrick Shanley’s clear writing, which is a feat in itself when you have a glance at the movie’s title.
The film’s primary plot revolves around a Catholic church set in the early 1960s New York. A strict principal (Streep), a new and passionate teacher (Amy Adams) and a wise and grave Father Brendan Flynn (played by Hoffman) deal with young students on the regular. However, parish principal Aloysius Beauvier doesn’t quite like the Father. And her dislike gets a kind of validation when rumours begin to surface about Father Flynn’s allegedly inappropriate behaviour with the male students.
Once the reports catch fire, things quickly speed up and the entire system gets divided on their opinion about the Father. He has had a past but is he really to blame this time around as well? The movie gives no straight answers, just like life. We toil, we fail, we doubt like the characters of the film. And that is where Doubt excels as a piece of art. It evokes the right kind of questions with no available correct options.
Hollywood Rewind: American Psycho | Julie and Julia | Forrest Gump | The Silence of the Lambs | Finding Neverland | Roman Holiday | American History X | Tropic Thunder | Before Sunrise | Scent of a Woman | Finding Forrester | Sixteen Candles
Viola Davis appears shortly, but significantly, in a role that earned her an Oscar nomination. As the mother of the boy with whom the Father has allegedly behaved in an improper fashion, Viola makes a passionate case of how riddled with chaos and confusion her life is as a black woman who has nothing but her son’s larger interest at heart.
Standout performances and a great script make Doubt a winner on all fronts. Watch it to believe it.
