I was surprised when the Montreal Gazette’s film critic, John Griffin, gave a thumbs down and two miserly stars to Doubt.
After all, as a Broadway play Doubt had a long run and garnered numerous awards. And the film version this December received many positive reviews and hints that it was heading for the Academy Awards.
My wife, Catharine, and I saw Doubt yesterday. It is a quite remarkable film. At the heart of the film is a fascinating duel between a parish priest and school chaplain (Seymour Hoffman) and a puritanical nun, the school’s principal (Meryl Streep).
The principal believes that the priest has been fooling around with one of her students, a black kid who is an altar boy.
Streep gives a tense rivetting performance. Where does her anger and censoriousness originate? She is both domineering and repressed (but what is she repressing?)
Doubt, in my view. is an intelligent, sensitive, nuanced portrayal of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church. The denoument is ambivalent, the story itself is compelling.
It would be a shame if the Gazette’s negative review discouraged people from going to see it.
There are many times when I have no interest in the films being shown in Montreal. But now I have three on my list that I would like to see during the holidays.
One is Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard’s lauded screen interpretation of the famed ’70s TV interview. Then there is Milk . Apparently Sean Penn is on his way to an award for his fine portrayal of the first gay elected to a major office in America, only to be assassinated.
Finally, there is Valkyrie, a vivid recounting of the assassination plot against Hitler in 1944. I am told the film does a fabulous job recreating and immersing us in 1940s Germany.
Tell us about some of films – good, bad and indifferent – that you saw in 2008.
What films would you like to see?
I don’t get to the movies as often as I should. I also would like to see Doubt, Frost/Nixon, Milk and The Reader. The anguished ambivalence of postwar Germany is more interesting to me than failed attempts at assassinating Hitler. I read that book, too.
I used to go to 2 or 3 movies a week.
Now I have Netflix and my movie-going has slowed down to about one movie every two months. But I would very much like to see the movies Barbara mentions although I’m not sure which ones I will wait to see via Netflix.
People should always avoid reviews – or at least take them with a grain of salt. Often the Gazette concert reviews are so out of whack with what I see it’s absurd. I have no clue what they hear or see.
I’m not into Hollywood movies about politics or history.
But I will take this moment to mention a past movie that remains as good as any made in the last 15 years: Rushmore.
exposrip:
Rushmore is wonderful. One of my all-time favourites. I’ve seen it at least a dozen times.
I loved it so much I even read the script.
That picture with Max doing a show tune is priceless.
My cousin used what I think was an appropriate word to described this intelligent comedy: elegant.
Everyone is just perfect: from Max to the sweet Miss Cross to Bill Murray’s character to the Dean of the school.
I guess what we’re trying to say Neil is try and get a copy and watch it.
Batman and James Bond, sorry I don’t like movies that attempt to emulate the serious aspects of life, reality is ,
feeling lousy, feeling good,
acting sinful, acting saintly, suffering and joy.
I go to movies to be entertained, it is not the ability of any Director to suffer the loss inccurred by a usually compromised script.