Doubt | Joe Zad reviews, Blu-ray, Drama | DONNE TEMPO
Doubt
As Sister Aloysius Beauvier, Streep portrays a tough-as-nails nun who has, at her very core, a love for the children in her school. That dedication leads to her wrestling with the ideals of obedience versus suspicion. Hoffman brings his boyishness and an easygoing personality to Flynn, a caring pastor who is loved by the congregation.
They are two very different people that time and place has put together. The film consistently displays Sister Aloysius love and dedication to her charges – both the children and the nuns and teachers whom she lives with.
It also shows Flynn’s gregarious, forwarding thinking – he wants to add secular songs to the Christmas pagenet -- likeable personality that may very well be the mask of something unbearable for Sister Aloysius to bear.
Streep’s emotions of care for her students are kept just beneath her taciturn expressions as she confronts Father Flynn. She suspects the good father of doing what too many of his brethren have been caught doing, and I don't mean drinking wine.
This pair of acting heavyweights is supported by Amy Adams as Sister James, a young nun filled with wide-eyed idealism who is caught in the middle of the conflict between two church leaders she reveres.
Viola Davis as Mrs. Miller, the mother of the student that Sister Aloysius suspect is being abused by the priest, rips open the wounds of conflict in her life.
This is a mother who must balance her love of her son, the violent anger of her husband and a dream that her black child will make it to college.
She shines a very bright light on the issues of racism, sexuality and a woman battered by an abusive husband – all subjects that a woman in the mid-1960s, particularly a black woman, had to shoulder alone.
Her raw emotion as she begs the Sister to leave it alone, to not pursue her suspicions against the Father, to not open her son to torment by students or her husband, is both frightening and understanding.
“It’s only till June,” she says, at which time he will be able to graduate on to High School where the school is bigger and the microscope less focused on one child.
She fears for her child’s life.
John Patrick Shanley's adaptation of his Pulitzer-Prize winning stage play set in the Bronx in the fall of 1964 delivers a potent jolt to viewers.
Miss Streep offers a full range of emotions and compliments Seymour's slow unraveling at her persecution. The final scene offers a fitting end to a story where "doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty."
Both characters find that commonality but neither is a winner.
The goods: I'll write it again, Streep, be it Linda in "The Deer Hunter," Karen Silkwood in "Silkwood," Julia in "Defending Your Life" and even Aunt Josephine in "Lemony Snicket," is a chameleon of personalities and her passion for the art of acting makes her one special gift to the medium.
The bads: The consumer should not drop the extra cash for a film that has no reason to exist in the Blu-ray format. The DVD version is more than fine. Heck, even presented on a black and white television screen, its emotional impact will always persevere.
The mandatory extras: Hallelujah, the most important guy on the set, John Patrick Shanley offers an optional commentary track. He reminisces about his youth, the play and the film.
Mr. Shanley really does a great job of overwhelming the viewer with his passion for the project.
Other stuff on the disc is better than promotional fodder. A 20-minute featurette centered on Mr. Shanley includes his interviewing Miss Streep. Also, I enjoyed a couple of minutes with the real Sisters of Charity talking about their life experiences.
Finally, the main cast sits down for 15-minutes with Entertainment Weekly's Dave Karger. Despite his idiotic questions, the performers manage to still offer an interesting interview segment.
— Joe Zad