Poor

What’s in a name? Well Juliet, I take your point, but still … Calling a film Doubt is pretty crass – then there’s the equally bad choice of Milk, and as long ago as 1990 they picked the title Misery for Rob Reiner’s otherwise excellent thriller. That put me off seeing it for quite a while.

In the case of Doubt I chose to see it despite the unfortunate title simply because it stars Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman. As a vehicle for these two great actors it is a joy to sit back and almost wallow in their talent. For the duration of the film, they don’t just act – they actually become Sister Aloysius Beauvier and Father Brendan Flynn.

Even a scene with glaring continuity errors (the conversation between Sister Aloysius and Mrs Miller as they walk, during which the crook of the Sister’s umbrella switches from left to right and back, finally coming to rest hooked on her arm) only fleetingly disturbed the cinematic illusion. A more important mistake – in the writing – is contained in the last 40 seconds of the story itself. I won’t disclose what happens, but I think it was unnecessary and should have been left on the cutting room floor.

“In the pursuit of wrongdoing, one takes a step away from God” Sister Aloysius argues as she ruthlessly persecutes Father Brendan. She is closed minded, conservative and repressive. I wondered if writer/director John Patrick Shanley had intended his story to be an allegory for the Bush years.