Golden Globe Movie Snub – Doubt
The 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards will be held on January 11th 2009; and while The Golden Globes may not be the most prestigious of all film awards, it’s a preview of the upcoming Academy Awards. Not all Golden Globe winners go on to receive an Oscar, but winning a Golden Globe seems to give nominees a slight lead come Oscar season.
With that said, I was disheartened when I learnt that Doubt, one of my favorite films of 2008, was not nominated as a Best Picture Drama. Sure, The movie has it’s faults like the excessive use of diagonal shots and the overstated symbolism. But still, I believe that even with those faults, Doubt is much better than at least 2 of the films nominated.
Doubt revolves around a very old fashioned Nun (played by Meryl Streep), who suspects that Father Flynn (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), may have molested a black student at their perish. Amy Adams plays a young and naive nun who is stuck in the middle of the conflict, and Viola Davis plays the black boy’s Mother.
The content is one that could have turned out to be preachy, but the screenplay which deals with faith, authority, race, among other issues, walks a very fine line. One which shows the events happening, rather than having a character explaining them; and while this film doesn’t hold your hand, it gives you enough information for the viewer, not the director (who, again was writer John Patrick Stanley), to come to their own conclusion on what happened.
All the performances in this movie were incredibly realized, and while I’m happy that the four central actors were nominated (Meryl Streep for Lead Actress in a Movie-Drama, Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Supporting Actor in a Movie-Drama, Amy Adams & Viola Davis for Supporting Actress in a Movie-Drama), I was still upset that Doubt was left out of Best Picture, while movies which I consider to be inferior, like Revolutionary Road and The Reader were recognized.
[...] Doubt, my favourite film of 2008 was also snubbed from the Best Picture category; but I won’t go on about that, as it has already gotten it’s own article. [...]