On Broadway, John Patrick Shanley's DOUBT, winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award, riveted audiences with its unremitting scrutiny of faith and its worthy adversary: uncertainty. Often, adapting a play of this magnitude for the big screen gives birth to disappointment, but Doubt survives as an engrossing, provocative drama.
Yes, there's a heavy handedness to the direction that's better suited to the stage. There are also far too many portentous elemental triggers (the wind-spun leaves, lashing rain, dreary skies -- we get the message, the end is bleak). And the usually excellent Adams is only passable here. Still, you can't deny the powerful themes Doubt dares to take on: Is it true, as Father Flynn says, that doubt can be "a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty"? Or is it, by its very nature, bad for the faithful? The film may not answer all of these questions mightily, but at least it tries.