Doubt (2008)

"Doubt" has a knockout cast with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis, and a well-loved stage play as its source. But it is a let-down.

The set-up: Hard ass, "God Hates You" flag waiver Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Streep) accuses the kind, loving Father Brendan Flynn (Hoffman) of sexually molesting an alter boy under his care. The priest denies doing anything wrong, other than showing the boy (who is black) compassion the child can't get from his own father.

This should be a hardcore, nail-biter game of Did He or Didn't He?!? But it's not. Instead, with Beauvier coming as a seething hell-bent nun who busts pagans, "Frosty the Snowman" and men's balls with devious religious glee, I didn't care if Flynn was guilty or not. And that's saying a lot. Under the glare of this nun, Madoff might come off as sympathetic. A film like this should make you squirm as you chose who is "right" over and over again, think "Hard Candy" where a psychopathic teen took on a child rapist. There's no challenge here, and the end "shocker" is blunted.

But the acting sells the film past all grievances, especially Viola Davis as the boy's mother who unleashes a soul-shocking nest of desire in a brief scene that is among the year's best. This mesmerizing, brilliant woman deserves every award under the sun as she paints a heart-breaking, upside down world where racism in mid-'60s America is the least of one minority family's problems. Hoffman also is in fine form and Streep is good with her 2D role. But, Davis. She's the miracle here, no doubt. B-