Okay my opinion may be much different because I played the role John Proctor in theater-form just a few months ago. I find the story to be one-tracked and boring. D-Day Lewis dominates and Joan Allen is top notch. I know the story has very solid metaphors for fearful discrimination but after awhile it's like we get it enough. It's almost to easy to pick up on character motivations in the film, play, or novel adaptations. You know where the story is pretty much headed. It's always thoughtful and mildly interesting but as a film form it's boring and tedious. I also had a problem with Ryder because she was convincing but I saw my four teenage friends play her much scarier, and portraying her for the crazy-messed, kooky, demented bitch she was not just someone like Ryder who showed she was mildly disturbed and only motivated to get Proctor in trouble not because she actually thought she was doing the right thing in her own world. I cant overlook that they seriously all out-performed a "star" like Ryder (in my opinion she is so over-rated and now people realize it) Like I said I had a different experience. Aside from Lewis(I learned so much watching him) and Allen I was bored to sleep.