Review of Doubt (2008) by Wesley D — 25 Jul 2010

I picked out this movie on a whim. Not sure what to expect I figured it would be a good movie for a weekend night. I'd heard a lot about this movie so I thought it must be good. Sadly, I was somewhat disappointed.

The movie largely centers around three main characters. Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep), and Sister James (Amy Adams). Both sisters work for the Catholic school and Father Flynn is the priest for the church. When it comes to the notice of Sister James that Father Flynn is paying too much attention to a particular boy, she brings her concerns to Sister Aloysius. Sister Aloysius has long suspected something to be off and now she has the ammunition she needs to try to remove Father Flynn from the church. Unfortunately though, the men in the church have always been more powerful than the women.

This movie had the potential to be very good; intriguing plotline, mystery, suspicions. But it actually, to me, was rather boring. There was a lot of dry dialogue and not even much action. The most exciting the scenes got were a couple arguments and some sermons in the church. With such powerful actors used, it seems like they could have made better use of their talents. Meryl Streep as usual was wonderful but the character didn't let her expand on those talents past a few arguements. Amy Adams character was flighty and annoying when, as a nun, perhaps she should have been a little more grounded. Hoffman, while he always plays the bad guy, just didn't give off those undertones which could have made his character that more interesting.

I probably wouldn't watch this one again. It just didn't captivate me enough to make it interesting. I wish I could say more about it but unfortunately there wasn't very much plot in this movie to talk about.