Doubt (Blu-ray)

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So is Natalie Portman kicking herself now for turning down the role of Sister James? Maybe. But it's hard to imagine anyone doing naiveté better than Adams. And while Viola Davis was only in two scenes as Mrs. Miller, she earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for a role that Oprah Winfrey reportedly lobbied for. She probably would like to kick the director.

Video:
"Doubt" was transferred to disc using an AVC/MPEG-4 transfer, and it appears to be a good one. Black levels bring out the detail in scenes that could have looked drab or gray, and the level of detail is wonderfully precise and clear. Skintones are natural looking, and while there isn't as much visual "pop" to this as on some of the better Blu-rays, Shanley went for a look, and Blu-ray sustains it. "Doubt" is presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio.

Audio:
The featured soundtrack is an English DTS-HD 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit), with an additional audio option in French Dolby Digital 5.1 and subtitles in English SDH and Spanish. The play demanded a quiet house so you could almost hear the characters breathe, and the DTS-HD soundtrack delivers a clean and precise audio that picks up all of the quiet sounds of "Doubt" that are used to help construct and maintain the tension. Footsteps in corridors echo with nail-biting clarity.

Extras:
There's a very nice package of bonus features included, though this is just a one-disc release. The one I enjoyed the most was "The Cast of 'Doubt'," which, while only 14 minutes long, featured the four main actors in a sit-down panel discussion with Dave Karger of "Entertainment Weekly." In this feature, you learn as much about the actors' personalities as you do about the characters they play, and their ideas about how the film differed from the stage version. But the longer feature is also above-average. "From Stage to Screen" runs roughly 20 minutes and features Shanley talking about his own life story and revealing how he consulted his childhood teachers and used childhood schoolmates as extras. There's some good stuff here.

The audio commentary is a nostalgic one, with Shanley going down memory lane and talking about how he created characters based on real people he knew. It's more a writer's commentary than a director's commentary, with the emphasis on the script and its relation to Shanley's life. Don't look for much in the way of behind-the-scenes anecdotes or technical revelations, because they're not here.

Two very brief bonus features round out the extras: an under five-minute clip in which Shanley discusses the score with composer Howard Shore, who isolates moments and plays them without dialogue or ambient sound, and a six-minute clip of "Sisters of Charity" in which Shanley and Streep talk about the real order before we see interviews with four real sisters who talk about their daily routines and the changes they've seen in the church.

Bottom Line:
As the sticker proclaims, "Doubt" appeared on over 50 Top 10 lists, and there's little fault to be found in the screenplay, direction, staging, or performances. If it's less than a perfect film, it's only because there may not be as much "doubt" for some as for others.

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