8.8

Doubt

This clever drama has elements of a crime thriller that will leave you asking questions throughout the movie of whether the "doubt" of Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) against Father Flynn (Philip Seymour) can be justified.

The movie is set during 1964 where Streep plays the principal of St. Nicholas, a working class Catholic school that is run by the Sisters of Charity. Things are thrown into disarray when Father Flynn arrives who has a strange method of teaching and when he befriends, a young black student (Joseph Foster), Sister Aloysius becomes quite dubious of this methods and looks for sinister answers.

Both actors play their parts quite well, with the strict Streep as Sister Aloysius and Seymour as Father Flynn with his new "modern" ways. To compound the situation, Sister James (Amy Adams) is caught between both the father and the sister, unable to determine whether anything is wrong. As tensions are strained, director John Patrick Shanley masterfully crafts an interesting movie that is almost a snapshot of the era that it is set.

With decent video and audio quality, Doubt also contains some engaging extras that include the move from stage to screen (as Doubt was based on a stage play), the cast of Doubt, the scoring of Doubt, The Sisters of Charity and audio commentary that gives the viewer another level behind the creation and story.

Gripping from start to finish!