Actors: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Director: John Patrick Shanley
Legendary director Howard Hawks once observed that the best films have two great scenes and no bad ones. He did not say what happens when a movie has three great scenes and one bad one. Doubt is such a movie - an amazingly well-constructed film that still falls short of greatness. However, one attribute of a good film is that it takes your expectations and messes with them - Doubt has this in spades.
Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman have been great actors for so long that it's barely worth noting just how good they are in anything; it is awesome that they share the same space in this film.
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What was the bad scene? Nothing comes to mind for me immediately.
ReplyDeleteI saw this movie in the theater and I have to say I was disappointed. Hoffman and Streep are of course awesome but I don't really think I'm exaggerating when I say nothing happens in this movie. There is a bit of speculation about what might have happened. But nothing actually happens. I know the whole point is that we don't really know if god exists bla bla bla but give me some plot, something, anything. Some movies are so visually stunning or far out that I don't mind that nothing really happens but this wasn't the case here. It was a bunch of self contained acting exercises for Streep and Hoffman (not that they weren't great at them).
ReplyDeleteIt just seemed like they were buying time until they could get to the laugh out loud (I actually did) face-palm obvious final line that I saw coming 5 minutes ahead of time.
i think those are fair points - the film is essentially plotless, so it's just a question of how much tolerance one can have for that.
ReplyDeleteas for the second - i didn't see it coming, but yeah, if you did, it is probably facepalm worthy. in that respect, it's kind of a terrible title.