Doubt (2008)

Based on director John Patrick Shanley’s Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning play, Doubt has been criticized by some for seeming, well, to much like a play. Though just slightly fleshed out from the theater, I can still see this criticism in terms of staging, though not in terms of dramatic impact. The idea that a movie either needs to be huge, or adhere to certain standards of pacing, I find to be a false one, so long as the drama (or comedy, or whatever the case may be) proves compelling, and in Doubt it certainly dose.

There are many movies in which at one point or another you find yourself out of the story, thinking about what your going to do after the movie, or some other such thing. At no point during Doubt did I feel distracted from the movie, it was gripping, and it was all performance, acting pure and simple. It is no mistake that the multi talented cast has come to dominate the SAG and Golden Globe nominations. Meryl Streep brings her full presence to the film, Amy Adams excels at the sort of naive character role she is always so arresting in. This is not to mention Viola Davis, whose brief supporting role has been rightly praised as the true dramatic standout of the film, she more then deserves an Oscar nomination. Yet it is Phillip Seymor Hoffman’s performance that I find myself dwelling on.

Hoffman I think, (giving emeritus statues to legends like Peter O’Toole and that other Hoffman Dustin) is the greatest working film actor of our time. He never repeats himself, he inhabits his roles, he doesn’t want the audience so much to like him, as wants the audience to believe him. Every tic and gesture of Father Flynn, the possibly pedophile priest he plays (pardon the alliteration) is very deliberately there but also natural. His character is key to the central mystery of the film, a film in which we are never really suppose to know the answer, namely wether or not the Father is guilty of molesting a young black boy. Yet Hoffman provides you with more then enough subtle material from which to gain your own answer to the movies narrative question, though not everyone’ will be the same. I can honestly tell you that my interpretation of what happened has changed as I’ve mediated on the body language, personality traits, and other characteristics present in Hoffman’s performance. The movie is a moral puzzle, a multi-part ethics question that asks the audience more about themselves then any movie I can think of from the last several years. In daring to confront doubt from multiple angles it is also a public service. I totally embrace Doubt. 5 out of 5.