Movie: Doubt

Been watching a Netflix series called "Hollywood Masters" where actors & directors are interviewed in front of acting classes at Loyola Marymount. I particularly enjoyed the one with Amy Adams, who it turns out has done SEVERAL movies I'd never heard of.

Case in point, Doubt (2008) with Adams, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep. Hoffman plays a priest who may, or may not, be having an inappropriate relationship with an altar boy. Streep plays the Mother Superior accuser, Adams the novice nun who takes his side.

Now, even realizing that Catholicism drives me crazy, still the movie was really well done and very unpredictable. Streep and Hoffman play their roles with fire and fury, and Adams realized early in the production that her role was to be small, and meek, and withdrawing, while these titans of acting ate up the scenery.

It's a master class in submersing yourself in a role.

Mentioned (prominently) in the same interview with Adams, The Master (2012). The interviewer called it “a masterpiece” and Amy called it her favorite film she’s done.

I thought it stunk.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays a pseudo-religious quack (L. Ron Hubbard comes to mind) who hypnotizes people into past life regressions to “cure” them. Of what? Never mentioned. Adams plays his wife, who walks through a couple scenes but essentially does nothing. Joaquin Phoenix plays a troubled alcoholic sailor who falls into Hoffman’s orbit for a while. Why? Never mentioned.

The plot was senseless. The editing was bad. The use of music was terrible. There was no arc to the story, no sense of narrative progression. Stuff happens out of the blue with no connective tissue. No resolution to anything in the end.

Stinky.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Been watching a Netflix series called "Hollywood Masters" where actors & directors are interviewed in front of acting classes at Loyola Marymount.  I particularly enjoyed the one with Amy Adams, who it turns out has done SEVERAL movies I'd never heard of.

Case in point, Doubt (2008) with Adams, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep.  Hoffman plays a priest who may, or may not, be having an inappropriate relationship with an altar boy.  Streep plays the Mother Superior accuser, Adams the novice nun who takes his side.

Now, even realizing that Catholicism drives me crazy, still the movie was really well done and very unpredictable.  Streep and Hoffman play their roles with fire and fury, and Adams realized early in the production that her role was to be small, and meek, and withdrawing, while these titans of acting ate up the scenery.

It's a master class in submersing yourself in a role.

Great film. Everyone was good, but Viola Davis was amazing in it.