Movie Review: Doubt Stars Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman

Last night I saw a really powerful drama called Doubt. It takes place in a Catholic school in New York City.It starred Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Streep plays a nun named Sister Beauvier and Philip Seymour Hoffman play Father Brendan Flynn. Amy Adams, playing Sister James, is another significant force in this movie.

I usually don't watch too many religious movies, but this movie sounded very interesting. Also, I figured that since Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman were starring, it would be an all around good movie. I am happy to say I was very pleased.

The movie focuses on an African American student named Donald Miller. He is the first African American student in the New York catholic school and was selected as an alter boy for the priest. As the movie evolves, one can see that Father Flynn is becoming very friendly with Donald Miller. One day, the student comes into history class (being taught by Sister James) and he is called out of class and ordered to report to the repertory. When he returns, Sister James realizes that the boy is acting odd so she speaks with him after class.

A week passes before Sister James confronts Sister Beauvier about the incident. The seriousness of the situation becomes clear when Sister James says she smelled alcohol on the boy's breath after he came back from seeing Father Flynn. From here, things get more and more interesting.

I thought the acting was really impressive and the movie kept my attention the entire time. This was quite impressive since I had just gotten off work at 7:30 in the evening and didn't start watching it until almost 9:30. There are times when I'll just doze off, especially if a movie isn't entertaining.

Meryl Streep is definitely a force to be reckoned with in this movie. She plays a part saturated with so many different emotions as she tries to find out what happened between Father Flynn and Donald Miller. Hoffman plays a very convincing part as a priest. You can tell just by looking at the expression on his face that he was guilty of serious wrongdoing. This movie I highly recommended. My rating: 3.5/5.

Movie stats (IMDB.com):

Nominated for 5 Oscars

Rated PG-13

Runtime: 104 minutes

Company: Godspeed Productions

User rating: 7.7/10

Release Date: December 25, 2008

Source:

Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0918927/