Film Review: Powerhouse pair on collision course in 'Doubt'
The only thing an actress likes playing more than a whore is a nun. No wonder Meryl Streep all but smacks her lips in "Doubt," which gives Our Lady of the Oscar (14 nominations, two wins) the chance to play what the impious might call a real mother (superior): Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the justly feared principal of a Catholic school in the Bronx, the year after John F. Kennedy's death.
A dragon in a wimple whose imperious disciplinarianism inspires the parish's progressive new priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to prepare a sermon on "tolerance," Sister Aloysius won't stand for barrettes or ballpoints in her school. "Penmanship is dying," she laments, looking rather like Vincent Price in "Witchfinder General" on the hunt for heretics to burn as she strolls the grounds, the skirts of her habit blown by angry gusts that represent nothing less than the Wind of Change. (In case you doubt it, writer/director John Patrick Shanley has Sister Aloysius state it, outright: "The wind has changed.")
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"Doubt" stars Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis and Lloyd Clay Brown in a Miramax release. Rated PG-13 for thematic material. Watch »
Andrew Schwartz/Miramax
Meryl Streep as Sister Aloysius butts heads with Philip Seymour Hoffman's Father Flynn in "Doubt."
Rated PG-13 for thematic material
Length: 104 minutes
Released: December 12, 2008 LimitedScore: 3.5
Cast: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis, Lloyd Clay Brown
Director: John Patrick ShanleyProducer: Scott Rudin
Writer: John Patrick Shanley
Genre: Drama
Distributor: Miramax
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Penmanship may be history, but the impeccably produced, expertly acted, prestige Hollywood Movie of Importance is thriving, as "Doubt" demonstrates. ("Frost/Nixon" and "Revolutionary Road" arrive here next month, to reinforce the idea.) Some critics have found "Doubt" too stagey, while others have suggested that Streep all but joins Sister Bertrille in the stratosphere when she flies off the handle with righteous wrath. However, as a person who had the glasses literally slapped from his face by a Roman Catholic sister in elementary school, I can testify that it's hard to exaggerate when portraying a nun.
Adapted by Shanley from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "Doubt" chronicles the psychological showdown at the RC corral that occurs when the traditionalist Sister Aloysius locks horns with liberal Father Flynn (Hoffman), a popular new priest who wants to establish a "welcoming" rather than intimidating church. Enlisting a naive novice, Sister James (Amy Adams, who is excellent), as a reluctant confederate, Sister Aloysius accuses Father Flynn of having made "advances" on the school's troubled, friendless -- and thus vulnerable -- first black student (Joseph Foster II). Flynn denies the charge, and the audience's loyalties are torn.
As its title indicates, "Doubt" is a story about faith as a corrupting as well as strengthening influence: Sister Aloysius says she knows Father Flynn is guilty, whatever the evidence. Fortunately, Hoffman -- crowned "the greatest character actor of our time" in a New York Times Sunday Magazine story this week -- is a player who can go mano a mano with Streep. Shanley's special effects crew probably pulled the strings and set off the charges, but it's no wonder windows rattle and lightbulbs crack when these two powerhouses lock horns.
To some extent, "Doubt" resembles a thought-provoking courtroom drama, as the opposing sides make their arguments, cross-examine each other, and interview various "witnesses" (playing Joseph's pragmatic mother, Viola Davis seems a safe bet for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination). The cloistered environment adds interest to the story, while also making a statement about institutional sexism (the nuns in their convent share simple food during a quiet mealtime, while the priests in the rectory drink, smoke, tell jokes and cut into slices of red meat). The movie gives viewers plenty to chew over on their way out of the theater.
But if Shanley wants us to consider big issues about religion, sexuality, personal responsibility, community obligations and false witness, he's perhaps most effectively delivered a movie about the allure of performance; as such, the casting of consummate players Streep and Hoffman is appropriate, because both the nun and the priest are proud actors in their own right.
Father Flynn is introduced getting ready for Mass as if he were the star of a play; we see the "backstage" preparations, the donning of "costumes" and the supporting cast of altar boys waiting in the wings, as the audience takes its place in the pews. When Flynn delivers his sermon, many church members appear rapt; but when Shanley's camera moves to the back of the church, we see kids talking, slouching. The congregation is a mirror of any audience, anywhere, but the daydreamers don't discourage Father Flynn: Like Hoffman, like Streep, like Sister Aloysius, like Shanley (the motivator who set these performances into motion), he's hooked.
-- John Beifuss: 529-2394
Movie review
'Doubt'
Rated PG-13 for adult themes.
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