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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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83
Wrestler, The
82
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82
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82
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80
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
80
Wendy and Lucy
79
Frost/Nixon
78
I've Loved You So Long
78
Gran Torino
78
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
75
Pool, The
73
Girl Cut in Two, A
72
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70
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70
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69
Ashes of Time Redux
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Fear(s) of the Dark
68
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67
Synecdoche, New York
64
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64
Timecrimes
64
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63
Where God Left His Shoes
63
Changeling
63
Eden
62
Duchess, The
61
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59
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58
Adam Resurrected
57
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57
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56
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55
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
55
What Just Happened?
54
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54
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53
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51
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49
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40
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34
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32
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32
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31
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30
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28
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28
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26
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26
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xx
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xx
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xx
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xx
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xx
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xx
Extreme Movie
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Doubt
Miramax Films
 |
|
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for thematic material
Starring
Meryl Streep,
Philip Seymour Hoffman,
Amy Adams,
and
Viola Davis
It's 1964, St. Nicholas in the Bronx. A vibrant, charismatic priest, Father Flynn, is trying to upend the school's strict customs, which have long been fiercely guarded by Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the iron-gloved Principal who believes in the power of fear and discipline. The winds of political change are sweeping through the country, and, indeed, the school has just accepted its first black student, Donald Miller. But when Sister James, a hopeful innocent, shares with Sister Aloysius her suspicion that Father Flynn is paying too much personal attention to Donald, Sister Aloysius is galvanized to begin a crusade to both unearth the truth and to expunge Flynn from the school. Now, without a shred of proof or evidence except her moral certainty, Sister Aloysius locks into a battle of wills with Father Flynn, a battle that threatens to tear apart the Church and school with devastating consequences. (Miramax)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
Mystery
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
John Patrick Shanley
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
John Patrick Shanley
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
Theatrical: December 12, 2008
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
104 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
An intellectually and emotionally exhausting and engrossing experience. It is drama of the highest caliber.
100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Doubt has exact and merciless writing, powerful performances and timeless relevance. It causes us to start thinking with the first shot, and we never stop. Think how rare that is in a film.
100
Chicago Reader
Albert Williams
Streep and Hoffman are pitch-perfect, and Amy Adams is also superb as a young nun caught up in the conflict.
100
TV Guide
Perry Seibert
Satisfies the heart and engages the mind.
90
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
Doubt is still overpowering; it took me a while when it was over to stop shaking. It's the dramatist’s business to sow doubt, to set down points of view that can't be reconciled, and Shanley makes visceral the notion that one can be right but never absolutely right, that doubt might be our last, best hope.
88
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
While Streep has a tiny bit too much fun with some of her character's excesses, she's awfully good. So is Hoffman, who walks a fine line between obvious guilt and possible innocence.
88
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
You may have doubts about which side to choose, but there's no doubt about this mind-bender. It'll pin you to your seat.
88
USA Today
Claudia Puig
By eloquently probing the state of uncertainty and its accompanying discomfort and confusion, Doubt compels viewers to examine their own assumptions as they become caught up in this fascinating tale.
83
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
Doubt is a complex, thematically loaded piece of work, and though it isn't enhanced on film, it deserves the wider exposure.
83
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
Along with its disappointments and its narrowness of intellectual focus, Doubt offers up the crackling pleasures of performance and a narrative that snaps shut like a mousetrap. It's the movie equivalent of a rousing night at the theater.
80
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Doubt leaves none in one respect: John Patrick Shanley was the right person to direct this fascinating screen version of his celebrated play.
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
This movie sticks.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
There seems to be something about the story itself that's better suited to the stage than the screen.
75
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
A feast of great acting, although in the final analysis it's a filmed stage play rather than a brilliant movie.
70
Slate
Dana Stevens
Cinematically, Doubt is something of a dud. But if it remains a play, it's an ingeniously structured one, with smart, thought-provoking words spoken by fabulous actors, and how often do most of us get to see one of those, whether in three dimensions or two?
70
New York Daily News
Joe Neumaier
Directing the film of Doubt, Shanley is able to put an even finer point on his Tony-and Pulitzer-winning play about suspicion and guilt at a Bronx Catholic grade school in 1964.
70
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
The film is nothing if not provocative.
70
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
Just when you begin to think you know who the cat and mouse really are, in steps Viola Davis to steal not just her scene but the entire movie from Streep.
70
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Shanley seems to have lost a certain amount of faith in what he'd written. As a director he's ended up pushing the drama harder than he needs to. He hasn't done anything fatal, but he has tampered with and hampered it.
63
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
As a consideration of faith and propriety, the movie never managed to boil my blood or break my heart.
60
NPR
Bob Mondello
Doubt cast a long moral shadow on Broadway but seems blunter on screen, largely because Shanley's fussy directorial notions ... are less nuanced than the religious and moral arguments he's given his principal characters.
58
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Shanley turns out to have dismayingly few original cinematic notions to back up the basic did-he-or-didn't-he hook in his study of conviction and compassion.
50
Newsweek
David Ansen
Doubt stirs up a lot of stormy theatrical weather, but the stolid transfer from stage to screen does Shanley's play no favors.
50
Village Voice
Ella Taylor
Doubt is only marginally, and tendentiously, about moral uncertainty--it's more about the sins of a nosy old biddy who pulls out all the stops when going through the official channels of a male-dominated Catholic Church would get her nowhere.
50
The New York Times
Manohla Dargis
Mainstream moviemaking, with its commercial directives and slavish attachment to narrative codes isn't particularly hospitable to ambiguity...which may help explain why Mr. Shanley's film feels caught between two mediums and why Ms. Streep appears to be in a Gothic horror thriller while everyone else looks and sounds closer to life or at least dramatic realism.
40
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Shanley offers no resolution to this Sharks vs. Jets conflict. For that, we have to wait for "Doubt! The Musical."
30
The New Yorker
Anthony Lane
Streep can do anything. She is, of course, wasted on this elephantine fable; if only Doubt had been made in 1964, shot by Roger Corman over a long weekend, and retitled "Spawn of the Devil Witch" or "Blood Wimple," all would have been forgiven
 The average user rating for this movie is 4.8 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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