A brief waver on the threshold of its premiere has steadied onto more confident footing, and Doubt is suddenly looking like a major player again. Building strength and acclaim over the past few days, it continues to earn strong reviews while collecting a clutch of prestigious critics awards. Not the least of these is yesterday’s grand slam of 4 acting nominations from the Chicago Film Critics Association (with this cast, was there ever any doubt?), so it seems appropriate to kick off a collection of top-rated review links with the dean of Chicago’s — and America’s — movie reviewers.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
After the assassination of Kennedy and the beginnings of Vietnam, doubt had undermined American certainty in general. What could you be sure of? What were the circumstances? The motives? The conflict between Aloysius and Flynn is the conflict between old and new, between status and change, between infallibility and uncertainty. And Shanley leaves us doubting.
James Berardinelli, ReelViews
Doubt is an intellectually and emotionally exhausting and engrossing experience. It is drama of the highest caliber, shaped by words and characters and directed with a simplicity that stands in stark contrast to the complexity of the people and issues on screen.
David Edelstein, New York Magazine
Streep is riveting. She shows that Aloysius, however monolithic her exterior, is alive on the inside. The eyes dart about, and the musings under her breath—sighs, asides, exclamations—suggest an openness to the notion of human imperfectibility. Her interrogations of Hoffman’s Flynn are seesaws of power.
