Although currently streaming on Netflix, the star-studded film will depart from the streamer next month
Written and directed by John Patrick Shanley, Doubt is a 2008 drama that’s based on Shanley’s Pulitzer-prize and Tony Award-winning 2004 stage play Doubt: A Parable. Starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis, Doubt is set in a Catholic elementary school named after St Nicholas in 1964 and tries to confront the issue of sexual abuse within the church.
Although currently streaming on Netflix, the film will depart from the streamer on June 4. Having premiered in October, 2008, at the AFI Fest before seeing a wider release in December that year, Doubt earned $51.7 million at the box-office against a budget of $20 million.
Although the movie received mixed reviews, Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams were all highly lauded for their performances — each earning an Oscar nomination at the 81st Academy Awards. Doubt was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the awards that year.
In fact, it is only the fourth film to date — joining My Man Godfrey (1936), I Remember Mama (1948), and Othello (1965) — which has received four acting nominations without getting a nod for Best Picture. A critic’s review of the film calls it: “An expert film, with a precision and lucidity in its intellectual quandary that few motion pictures can muster, making the experience at once entertaining and full of substance.”
Another reviewer says: “Doubt comes to the screen with a welcome restraint, relying as much on what is unsaid as on what is said and the kind of stylish visual juxtapositions of those suppers.” One critic feels: “Doubt is simply, engrossingly thought-provoking and, despite its subdued appearance, is one of the brightest films of the year.”
Nevertheless, another wasn’t left too impressed, writing: “Doubt looks like some sort of upscale horror film, complete with crows and swirling leaves like The Omen. It’s actually a terminally muddled piece of star-studded Oscar-bait.”
An audience review for the film states: “This film will leave you questioning and doubting. No conclusion as you need to draw your own. Streep was excellent in it and the guy who played the priest.”
While another lauds its performances: “Now that we are many years past the film’s aggressive Oscar campaign and the endless debates over the film’s effectiveness as an adaptation of a massively successful play, I think we can assess it on its own merits. Frankly I think the movie is very clear eyed about what happened and what this all means and the performances are uniformly great.”
One viewer, who was not won over by Shanley’s offering, writes: “Critics and audience alike are all luvvy darling how wonderful what performances blah blah blah. I don’t get it. There is no reason for Streep’s certainty.
“She has no ulterior motive and no proof. She is not mad nor is she looking for revenge. The story is fundamentally flawed.” (sic)
On the other hand, some felt the acting was the film’s only saving grace: “I love Meryl Streep, and she really saved this film from sending me to sleep. It was very pedestrian and not a great deal happened.
“There was a nice atmosphere, though, and I found Amy Adams’s character engaging, too.”
Doubt will leave Netflix on June 4.
