Doubt
Miramax Films | Release Date: December 12, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
27
Mixed:
9
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
An intellectually and emotionally exhausting and engrossing experience. It is drama of the highest caliber. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Doubt has exact and merciless writing, powerful performances and timeless relevance. It causes us to start thinking with the first shot, and we never stop. Think how rare that is in a film. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderAlbert Williams
Streep and Hoffman are pitch-perfect, and Amy Adams is also superb as a young nun caught up in the conflict. Read full review
100
TV Guide MagazinePerry Seibert
Satisfies the heart and engages the mind. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Doubt is still overpowering; it took me a while when it was over to stop shaking. It's the dramatist’s business to sow doubt, to set down points of view that can't be reconciled, and Shanley makes visceral the notion that one can be right but never absolutely right, that doubt might be our last, best hope. Read full review
90
Film ThreatMatthew Sorrento
Exhausting yet invigorating, it's a drama one witnesses more than just views. Read full review
90
Next Best PictureLauren LaMagna
By the end of the film, it is evident that it is not about whether Father Flynn hurt a student; it is about the contradictions of humans and the uncertainty of the world our characters live in, and how powerful and scary that uncertainty is. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
You may have doubts about which side to choose, but there's no doubt about this mind-bender. It'll pin you to your seat. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
While Streep has a tiny bit too much fun with some of her character's excesses, she's awfully good. So is Hoffman, who walks a fine line between obvious guilt and possible innocence. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
By eloquently probing the state of uncertainty and its accompanying discomfort and confusion, Doubt compels viewers to examine their own assumptions as they become caught up in this fascinating tale. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Doubt is a complex, thematically loaded piece of work, and though it isn't enhanced on film, it deserves the wider exposure. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Along with its disappointments and its narrowness of intellectual focus, Doubt offers up the crackling pleasures of performance and a narrative that snaps shut like a mousetrap. It's the movie equivalent of a rousing night at the theater. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The film's added enigma makes the play's title even more appropriate, but it results in a more ambiguous and perhaps less satisfying dramatic experience. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's a splendid ensemble, equal in almost every way to the fine, probing script. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Doubt leaves none in one respect: John Patrick Shanley was the right person to direct this fascinating screen version of his celebrated play. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
This movie sticks. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
There seems to be something about the story itself that's better suited to the stage than the screen. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
A feast of great acting, although in the final analysis it's a filmed stage play rather than a brilliant movie. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
The truth is left for the audience to decide. And while the conclusion isn't necessarily clear, it is unsettling. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Not exactly a tour de force, but the film succeeds on the wattage of its stars. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Blessedly, the kernel of the writing remains undisturbed, and its arguments are still powerful. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
The film is nothing if not provocative. Read full review
70
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Just when you begin to think you know who the cat and mouse really are, in steps Viola Davis to steal not just her scene but the entire movie from Streep. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Shanley seems to have lost a certain amount of faith in what he'd written. As a director he's ended up pushing the drama harder than he needs to. He hasn't done anything fatal, but he has tampered with and hampered it. Read full review
70
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
Directing the film of Doubt, Shanley is able to put an even finer point on his Tony-and Pulitzer-winning play about suspicion and guilt at a Bronx Catholic grade school in 1964. Read full review
70
SlateDana Stevens
Cinematically, Doubt is something of a dud. But if it remains a play, it's an ingeniously structured one, with smart, thought-provoking words spoken by fabulous actors, and how often do most of us get to see one of those, whether in three dimensions or two? Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
As a consideration of faith and propriety, the movie never managed to boil my blood or break my heart. Read full review
60
NPRBob Mondello
Doubt cast a long moral shadow on Broadway but seems blunter on screen, largely because Shanley's fussy directorial notions ... are less nuanced than the religious and moral arguments he's given his principal characters. Read full review
60
EmpireIan Nathan
A mighty actor, a smart play, a clunky adaptation. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Shanley turns out to have dismayingly few original cinematic notions to back up the basic did-he-or-didn't-he hook in his study of conviction and compassion. Read full review
50
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Doubt stirs up a lot of stormy theatrical weather, but the stolid transfer from stage to screen does Shanley's play no favors. Read full review
50
Village VoiceElla Taylor
Doubt is only marginally, and tendentiously, about moral uncertainty--it's more about the sins of a nosy old biddy who pulls out all the stops when going through the official channels of a male-dominated Catholic Church would get her nowhere. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Mainstream moviemaking, with its commercial directives and slavish attachment to narrative codes isn't particularly hospitable to ambiguity...which may help explain why Mr. Shanley's film feels caught between two mediums and why Ms. Streep appears to be in a Gothic horror thriller while everyone else looks and sounds closer to life or at least dramatic realism. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The problem with Doubt is its dramatic certainty. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Shanley offers no resolution to this Sharks vs. Jets conflict. For that, we have to wait for "Doubt! The Musical." Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Unfortunately, the actors don't all behave as though they're performing in the same movie. Read full review
30
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
Streep can do anything. She is, of course, wasted on this elephantine fable; if only Doubt had been made in 1964, shot by Roger Corman over a long weekend, and retitled "Spawn of the Devil Witch" or "Blood Wimple," all would have been forgiven Read full review
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