| Overall Grade: |
B |
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| Story: |
A+ |
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| Acting: |
B |
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| Direction: |
B- |
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| Visuals: |
B- |
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Old Habits Doubt hard.
by Jim B (movies profile)
Dec 11, 2008
13
of
21 people found this review helpful
Writer John Patrick Shanley takes the reins for this film as Director of his Pulitzer Prize winning drama and with good reason. He keeps the original idea of his play intact where others might steer away wanting a change in pace and dialogue, needlessly sprucing it up for mass public consumption. Something which cannot be overlooked in the casting of Film Stars for the roles instead of the highly awarded and regarded Broadway Play Cast.
It takes far too long to reach the importance and glow of the play as a film. The strength of the story relies upon the opening monologue by Father Flynn from his pulpit to his flock. It is weakened by action photographed away from the oration introducing the Character Sister Aloysius and the role she plays. This direction destroys the depth in the story by stealing focus away from the importance of the monologue, a technique that plagues film today, where few directors are spared. Shanley robs the potency of this story by trying to influence the audience with other, more mawkish points, introducing characters not central to the plot. These additions to the story line do drowsy the film.
Lost in the film is the subtle sexual connotations of the characters. Because the films actors work is much smaller than that which would be seen on stage, we lose this important fact the play has to offer. Through Sister Aloysius, we are to believe Father Flynn is a homosexual and that neither Sister James, Sister Aloysius, nor Mrs. Muller have a sexed hue. However when reading the play it is easy to discover their true sex and their struggle with their veiled sexuality, which makes this story even more dynamic. Sister Aloysius’s words at films end have no truth to them because we don’t know what they mean or why she says them. The Plays impact on the audience in film is not as immediate as that of the stage; it doesn’t have the concentrated three dimensional power to assist in conveying the writers bold intentions.
This is an all-star cast delivering, pat (for this cast) performances. The performance of Viola Davis stands out from the rest with her delivery of a coarse perspective and reasoning on her sons actions and education which alters the battle. The sets are minimal, as they should be, and deliver a real sense of period.
The film’s story is centered around five characters, Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Sister Aloysius(Meryl Streep), Sister James (Amy Adams), Mrs. Muller (Viola Davis), and son Donald Muller (Joseph Foster).
“Doubt” the film, takes place at an early grades parochial school in a tight knit Irish-Italian neighborhood in Bronx New York, circa 1960’s. JFK’s assassination was still raw in the American vernacular, and The Civil Rights Act legislation had been recently passed into law by LBJ. This is a time when McCarthyism and the naming of names appeared to have drawn its last gasp and the Beat Generation morphing into the counter culture movement was in full swing on America’s main stage.
Circumstances of a negro boy, Donald Muller, the only in St. Nicholas school, prompt Sister Aloysius (School Principal), to suspect the behavior of Father Flynn toward Donald to be that of a pederast. Altar wine on Donald’s breath and a private visit to Father Flynn’s sanctum during class sets the stage for suspicion and action by the two nuns. The Sister’s confront Father Flynn who is surprised by the allegations and proclaims his innocence. The Duel between Flynn and Aloysius is a battle for control of the lives and souls of their Parishioners’ and the children in their charge. It is a fight to keep more conservative values alive when Liberal ideas are seeping into the nave and roosting. A harsh lesson in justifying deeds that separate the missionary from the Lord’s mission is spoken near films end, when the naïve and ever-forgiving Sister James in her latest moment of uncertainty asks Sister Aloysius why she has lied. Sister Aloysius replies; “In pursuit of wrongdoing, one steps away from God. Of course there’s a price.”
“Doubt” is a mesmerizing story for the most part and well worth the journey for all. |
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