Doubt Review

Let’s get it out of the way quickly, of the films I saw that came out in 2008 Doubt is the best, by far.  The Dark Knight is still my favorite but not in a Oscar-Winning Best Picture kind of way.  I suppose Doubt can snuggle in as a comfy second.

The film was shot  with a budget of $20 million, most of it probably being spent on getting Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, etc. into it and, from a cinematic standpoint, it shows.  But that’s not what the film is about, and this is why it deserves the Oscar and Slumdog Millionaire does not, it’s about making you think.  Doubt is a cerebral experience while Slumdog Millionaire is a modern day adventure movie.  Interestingly, the former is rated “PG-13” and the latter “R” but Doubt is so much more mature.

The plot follows two nuns and a priest.  Amy Adams plays, I thought humorously, the lamb, while Meryl Streep has more of a “fun granny” thing going.  There are times, notably the early dinner scene, when, for some reason or other, I felt she was channeling the Joker.  I don’t know who plays the priest but he did a fine enough job.  No one was exceptional, other than Viola Davis, who deserved the Oscar for supporting actress, but they didn’t screw up the script, the real star here, so it’s all good.  But I feel I’ve gone out on a tangent here so, yes, the plot.  I saw the film right after watching the biography on Michael Jackson’s life that CNN seems to have on loop and certainly there are interesting parallels.  When the priest character gave the toy to the boy (ha, ha) I thought, “Dammit, it’s one of THOSE guys.”  Actually it was. 

I’ve heard a lot of people say the film’s great because you doubt (excuse me, I’m trying to use this word as little as possible during the review) whether or not the guy’s a pedophile.  Noooooooooooo.  No, no, no.  It’s obvious he is.  Everyone knows it (minus Amy Adams), the question is whether or not to kick him out.  As an Atheist the answer was fairly simple: Yes.  The guy’s sexually abusing children, after all.  The whole situation serves as an analogy for Religion, at least to me.  There are positive effects (the boy feels accepted) but it’s nothing that couldn’t be solved using, say, different means such as trying to help him fit in with other people who, for some reason or other, are his age and don’t want his penis in their mouths.

3.5/4 stars

Tags: Amy Adams, Atheist, CNN, Doubt, Meryl Streep, Michael Jackson, oscars, Pedophiles, Religion, review, Slumdog Millionaire