Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actress 2008

The Contenders:

Angelina Jolie: Changeling
Meryl Streep: Doubt
Melissa Leo: Frozen River
Anne Hathaway: Rachel Getting Married
Kate Winslet: The Reader (winner)

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Adapted Screenplay 2008

The Contenders:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire (winner)

Smoke and Shadows

Film: Doubt
Format: On Demand on big ol’ television.

Doubt is one of those rare movies that netted four acting nominations at the Oscars. Meryl Streep nominated for Best Actress isn’t a huge surprise and neither is Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Supporting Actor. Amy Adams certainly earned her nomination in a supporting role. Viola Davis is honestly a bit of a shock, though. Now, I love Viola Davis as much or more than the next person, but she’s got only a single scene. Admittedly, she is amazing in that single scene, but still, it’s a very small role.

What I find most interesting about Doubt is not the premise but the time period in which it is set. The idea of a movie about the Catholic Church’s “problems” with pedophile/pederast priests is certainly well-known and scandalous and horrifying in so many ways. But having a film that touches on these issues set in the mid-1960s is particularly interesting. Obviously the problem was happening in those years, but it wasn’t known. It doesn’t feel off, but it does feel unusual.