Review: 'Doubt' stunningly simple, loaded with Oscar contenders

The brilliant "Doubt" is a surprisingly simple film. It's shot in a handful of sets that make up a single Catholic school location. The camera is steady and moves only when necessary, and the cold winter look is a perfect emotional cloak for the ominous story.

Originally a Broadway play written by the film's director, John Patrick Shanley, "Doubt" is the story of two nuns who find a reason to doubt a priest's overt attention to the young boys in a Bronx Catholic school in 1964.

Sister Aloysius Beauvier, played by the great Meryl Streep, is the school's principal and stereotypical scary nun. Sister James, played by the angel-faced Amy Adams, is a new and well-liked history teacher. And Philip Seymour Hoffman is Father Brendan Flynn, the new priest with new ideas and a marked interest in the boys of his school.

After the world-wise Sister Beauvier sees something she doesn't like about Father, she asks her fellow sisters to keep an eye out for anything suspicious — they dare not mention or even think about her true meaning. Soon after Sister James sees Father putting a T-shirt into a boy's locker. Later, when the same boy is called out of class by Father and then returns with alcohol on his breath, she brings it to the head sister. From this point on, the Oscar-caliber performances of Streep, Adams and Hoffmann, not to mention Viola Davis as the boy's mother, are truly astonishing.

Streep once again inhabits a character so completely that she becomes the person she portrays — a world-wise nun obedient only to God and righteous men who meet her standards, cut off from life literally and figuratively, agonizing and fretting, controlling and accusing. She's seen men like Father before, and she'll do everything in her power to stop him.

Amy Adams' eyes — If you've not seen the little film "Junebug," do yourself a favor and, if nothing else, rent it for Amy's moment when she meets her brother-in-law's girlfriend. That little moment got her an Oscar nomination, and here in "Doubt" her innocent Sister James will get her another. Sister James agrees with many of the new changes in the church and wants for all the world to believe Father has done nothing wrong. But she's probably smarter than either Father or Sister Beauvier and, as a true believer, will turn out to be what the church will need in the future.

Shanley said that between takes and setups Hoffman would stand alone and look out the window, chain smoking and growling to no one in particular. Shanley said he didn't want to disturb Hoffmann as he worked on his character, that he thought it best to leave him alone. For Hoffmann's part, he said he wished Shanley had disturbed him — he was going through mental hell and probably lost a year or two off his life from the stress.

"Doubt" was written and directed by the Oscar-winning Shanley, produced by the Oscar-winning Scott Rudin, scored by the Oscar-winning Howard Shore, photographed by the seven time Oscar-nominated Roger Deakins, edited by the Oscar-nominated Dylan Tichenor, designed by the Oscar-nominated David Gropman, and the costumes were designed by Oscar-winner Ann Roth.

Steve E. Turner is a freelance movie reviewer and filmmaker. Read more of his reviews at www.picassofish.blogspot.com.