Product Description
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Written and directed by Academy Award-winner John Patrick
Shanley (Moonstruck) and with an exceptional cast including
Academy Award-winners Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman
plus Academy Award-nominee Amy Adams, Doubt is a gripping story
about the quest for truth, the forces of change and the
devastating consequences of blind justice in an age defined by
moral conviction.
It’s 1964, St. Nicholas in the Bronx. A vibrant, charismatic
priest, her Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman), is trying to upend
the school’s strict customs, which have long been fiercely
guarded by Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep), the
iron-gloved Principal who believes in the power of fear and
discipline. The winds of political change are sweeping through
the community and indeed, the school has just accepted its first
black student, Donald Miller. But when Sister James (Amy Adams),
a hopeful innocent, shares with Sister Aloysius her
guilt-inducing suspicion that her Flynn is paying too much
personal attention to Donald, Sister Aloysius sets off on a
personal crusade to unearth the truth and to expunge Flynn from
the school. Now, without a shard of proof besides her moral
certainty, Sister Aloysius locks into a battle of wills with
her Flynn which threatens to tear apart the community with
irrevocable consequence.
Stills from Doubt (click for larger image).
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( https://images-eu.ssl-images-.com/images/G/02/uk-dvd/images/disney/doubt1_large.jpg )
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( https://images-eu.ssl-images-.com/images/G/02/uk-dvd/images/disney/doubt3_large.jpg )
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( https://images-eu.ssl-images-.com/images/G/02/uk-dvd/images/disney/doubt5_large.jpg )
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( https://images-eu.ssl-images-.com/images/G/02/uk-dvd/images/disney/doubt6_large.jpg )
.co.uk Review
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It's always a risk when writers direct their own work, since
some playwrights don't travel well from stage to screen. Aided by
Roger Deakins, of No Country for Old Men fame, who vividly
captures the look of a blustery Bronx winter, Moonstruck's John
Patrick Shanley pulls it off. If Doubt makes for a dialogue-heavy
experience, like The Crucible and 12 Angry Men, the words and
ideas are never dull, and a consummate cast makes each one count.
Set in 1964 and loosely inspired by actual events, Shanley
focuses on St. Nicholas, a Catholic primary school that has
accepted its first African-American student, Donald Miller
(Joseph Foster), who serves as altar boy to the warm-hearted
her Flynn (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). Donald may not have any
friends, but that doesn't worry his mother, Mrs. Miller (Viola
Davis in a scene-stealing performance), since her sole concern is
that her son gets a good education. When Sister James (Amy Adams)
notices Flynn concentrating more of his attentions on Miller than
the other boys, she mentions the matter to Sister Aloysius
Beauvier (Meryl Streep), the school's hard-nosed principal.
Looking for any excuse to push the progressive priest out of her
tradition-minded institution, Sister Aloysius sets out to destroy
him, and if that means ruining Donald's future in the process--so
be it. Naturally, she's the least sympathetic combatant in this
battle, but Streep invests her disciplinarian with wit and
unexpected flashes of empathy. Of all the characters she's
played, Sister Aloysius comes closest to caricature, but she
never feels like a cartoon; just a sad woman willing to do
anything to hold onto what little she has before the forces of
change render her--and everything she represents--redundant.
--Kathleen C. Fennessy