I “Doubt” it

There can be no doubt that Meryl Streep gives an excellent performance, as always, in the film “Doubt." I doubt anyone could ever fault her convincing portrayal and meticulous attention to detail... facial expressions, mannerisms and so forth. There can be no doubt that she is a gracious and accomplished performer who thoroughly deserved a nomination for best actress. But, I have some doubts about this movie. If asked whether I would prefer to to have watched it or to have eaten a live cockroach I doubt I'd know what to say. (Here I will deliver a little sermon on the topic of "doubt" and then lay before you some half disclosed evidence and leave you with profound feelings of doubt. I doubt you could possibly appreciate how very clever I have been with my oh-so-obvious title and my clever little tricks of the mind....)
If you are getting as tired as I am of my patent attempts to draw attention to the word “doubt” and all it's possible meaning and connotations, then perhaps you will understand my, em, reservations about the whole live cockroach dilemma - slippery and cold as it may be - with its horrible legs wriggling as it slips down my throat. The problem with this film is that it was based on a play. You know – the kind of thing that middle-class pseudo intellectuals go to watch, then simper about afterwards in horsey voices. Even if I did want to have my cerebral cortex tickled in a frightfully clever way instead of being properly entertained, then I doubt this would be quite the tickler of my choosing. It is slimy and it displeases and irritates. It's attitude to the issue of sexual abuse of children by members of the Catholic clergy is too ambivalent for my liking – I think if you raise that particular issue – you absolutely have to protest most strongly against it. Even if it was a good play, which I doubt, I doubt that a play can really be successfully translated into movie form without a lot more skilful adaptation and fleshing out than this received.
If you can ignore the annoying interference of the clever playwright with your viewing pleasure, it is still perhaps worth watching, if you like that kind of thing; and has some highly enjoyable moments thanks to Meryl Streep's portrayal of the cantankerous authoritarian nun who is head of a Catholic school and has an oddball sense of humour that no-one else in the play, I mean film, ever gets. But be warned – you could end up feeling like you have been slimed with the contents of someone else's private bag of worms. He who sows doubt in the breast of his fellow man can scarcely be described as a decent sort of man. Doubt is an ugly word and I think if it is explored it should always be accompanied with a healthy dose of it's counterparts – resolution, confidence, light and hope. Somehow I doubt that this movie really did that for me.