Doubt

Set in 1964, in a Catholic school, Philip Seymour Hoffman is a priest who's
abusing the boys in his care, and Meryl Streep is a nun, and the principal of
the school, who can't prove it, but is desperate to stop him. Or, Philip
Seymour Hoffman is a caring priest who's trying to help the boys, and Meryl
Streep is a nun who's irrationally convinced herself that he's abusing the kids
and sets out to frame and destroy him. And therein lies the doubt.

What follows is essentially a face off between the two. What's really good
about the film is that both performances are very well balanced. Hoffman's not
so creepy that you feel he must have done it, nor is he so obviously good and
innocent that feel he's definitely being wronged. Likewise, Streep's an
intolerant old battleaxe, and you feel she's quite possibly stringing the guy
up on what amounts to a hunch backed with personal dislike. On the other hand,
she clearly cares under the hard exterior, and seems to have good instincts for
people. You might come out of the film favoring one viewpoint over the other,
but you *will* have a doubt.

Cracking film, cracking perfomances.