Review of Doubt (2008) by Eric G — 23 Dec 2011

Strange, how such a quiet and subtle movie could wind up being far more entertaining, interesting, and even thrilling than the big budget epic adventure film Australia. Everywhere that Australia, as a movie, fails miserably at, Doubt excels. This is a brilliant, fascinating, intense, haunting, and strangely beautiful film, and if all that sounds pretentious, then get used to it - this is an indie flick, baby, and it's not for the lovers of Death Race. But for all those out there who are either courageous filmgoers or are dating a courageous filmgoer, you'll be hard pressed to find a better film out there in theatres this month.

Doubt is a very subdued drama involving a bunch of small details (such as the length of a man's fingernails or a lightbulb that keeps fizzing) that eventually add up to a big and rather heartbreaking whole. Unlike other Oscar contenders such as, say, Revolutionary Road (which I also did still like), not every line is screaming out "NOTICE ME!" and not every scene is "WATCH THIS AT OSCAR TIME!". The movie has these sort of stand out moments, yes, where the actors belt out monologues and emotions reach a flaring point, but they sneak up on you; whereas in Revolutionary Road, the couple were screaming and fighting and crying before the opening credits started.

Every actor in this flick deserves an Oscar nomination. When was the last time you were able to say that? Meryl Streep is in fine form, as always - her character appears, in the beginning, to be a brutally cold bitch, but she gradually becomes the "heroine" of the story, and we wind up sympathizing with her. Amy Adams is perfectly cast as the timid and hopelessly naive young nun, Philip Seymour Hoffman is stupendous, and Viola Davis, who's only in one scene, is already garnering Oscar talk. The direction, by the director of Joe Versus The Volcano, is understated and all the more powerful for it. We never notice any camera moves or tricks, and that's damn right for this material, as is the cold and bleak cinematography by Roger Deakins (he's kinda like Bob Dylan for cinematographers). Even the music by Howard Shore is short, evocative, and barely noticeable (and this is coming from the composer of the Lord of the Rings movies).

But it's the screenplay where the movie really shines (and ironically, this is probably where the film will get the least amount of attention come awards time). Dialogue mixes both the sparse and poetic - do you have any idea how hard that is to write? Think about it; you must be mysterious but never confusing, ambiguous but never illogical, poetic but never show-offy. It must be great dialogue, but the audience must not notice. Seriously, for anyone out there who is not a writer - it's one of the hardest things in the world to do, like climbing Mount Everest or banging a Mormon girl. I wish I could do it well. Thank God some of us out there still can. The script for Doubt continually surprises in ways you don't expect. If you think what kind of film or story you're gonna get walking into Doubt, you may have to think again by the time the haunting and unsettling ending occurs. Many people were pissed off about the ambiguouity. These people wanted some sort of closure, or catharsis, and those aren't things you'll find in Doubt (at least, not in the usual movie sense). But that's what I loved so much about it. What a ballsy, audacious thing to do - make a movie about pedophilia (supposedly) in the Catholic church, and not only write it so well that the audience can never be 100% sure of the crime, but to also make it so that the priest himself is given a clear, concise voice, where he is allowed to express his opinions, his thoughts, his fears, and even defend his actions, although they may not be the actions he's being accused of. Life is full of these gray areas, but it's not something often explored in movies; we go to the cinema to see the good guys beat the bad guys, and that's that. Not here. Was Streep's character correct in her suspicions? Was she right in doing what she did? Was evil punished, or was it rewarded? We're never quite sure. That's the element that frustrated many viewers, but also the one that, I feel, gaurentees it a spot in the AFI top 100 list of all time in 50 years or so.

Doubt is a great movie, and fuck all who tell you differently. It is challenging, troubling, glacially paced, and occasionally tough to sit through, yes. But it's a rather amazing experience, to watch a filmmaker walk such a tightrope, and succeed. It may not be the supreme entertainment Dark Knight was, nor the jovial and exuberant display that Slumdog Millionaire is. But in it's own, silent way, it's just as powerful.