12/05/2008
Doubt and Tolerance
Back in 2005 I posted about the Pulitzer Prize-winning John Patrick Shanley play Doubt, which centers around a priest at St. Nicholas Church School in the Bronx who is accused by the school's head nun, Sister Aloysius, of molesting a young boy. Sister Aloysius goes on a one-woman crusade to expel the priest from teaching, even though she has no evidence — only suspicions — that he has misbehaved.
Now the film version of doubt is nearing its release, with Meryl Streep as Sister Aloysius and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Father Flynn.
Watch a clip, AFTER THE JUMP...
Posted 1:13 PM EST by Andy Towle in Catholic Church, Film, News | Permalink
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I'm afraid this is going to be a really poor adaptation -- Shanley is doing it himself, but he's not experienced in film. From the trailer, Meryl Streep appears to have been directed to act as if on stage -- in a very large auditorium!
And some of the play's theatrical qualities -- the claustrophobic focus on just a few characters, the restricted setting -- should have been kept. It looks as if they've "opened up" the play almost mechanically, adding characters and locations when what gave the play power was its confinement to one battleground between two strong characters.
Posted by: Distingué Traces | Dec 5, 2008 1:31:32 PM
it's a well-made movie and Streep, Hoffman, Adams and Davis are great. But Shanley side-steps the entire Catholic pedophile scandal while pretending to confront it.
The wholesale rape of pre-adolescent youths by Cahtolic priests has nothing to do with anything seen here, in which a really nice priest who MAY have gotten hands-y is acused by t emOther Superior From Hell of rounding third base and making a home run.
Only at the end when he's sent away by his superiors to another parish are the REAL crimes of the church evoked. For that's what Cardinal Law did constantly. I ran into one of Law's priests as he was running a gay hotel in Palm Springs I stayed at (having no notion of its owner) WHILE HE WAS STILL WORKING AS A PRIEST!!!!!!!
Thankfully he's in the slammer now, for a list of sex crimes that go from here to the moon. But I have no idea what happened to the OTHER PRIEST who ran the hotel with him, while serving mass every day.
As I have said before the RC church is the world's largest and most effient pedophile cult.
Posted by: David Ehrenstein | Dec 5, 2008 1:35:17 PM
And a dull assed play it was. Guess what boys and girls? You can never be sure of anything! DOUBT! The movie is kind of sunk by casting that Hoffman creature. How is there any doubt at all about him being a pedophile?
See RASHOMON, it got there first and did it better.
Posted by: Roscoe | Dec 5, 2008 1:56:09 PM
When I saw the preview in the theater, I was extremely disturbed by how awful the whole thing looked. The costuming looked like a poor version of the Scarlet Letter or some Pilgrim story. The portions of the movie shown looked almost like a farce, and so bad that it seemd destined to be in the category of a bad B-movie that becomes a cult classic because it is so poorly made.
Posted by: John in Philly | Dec 5, 2008 2:38:08 PM
I saw it a few weeks ago and it's a mess of a movie. Shanley has botched this big time. His use of bizarre camera angles distracts from the story and the use of weather (there's always a wind blowing and it's raining) grows irritating. Worst of all is how he lets Streep run amok. It's probably her least persuasive performance - so overdone and played all wrong. Her constant twitching and nervous tics make the character seem very neurotic and unsure of herself, thus the powerful ending is undermined. Hoffman is shrill and Amy Adams needs to call moritorium on the tremulous sincerity thing. Viola Davis manages to rise above the fray, though.
Posted by: Mark | Dec 5, 2008 2:54:44 PM
In other words, it is just bad enough to win the Oscar for Best Picture!
Posted by: Roscoe | Dec 5, 2008 3:28:10 PM
I saw it at an advance screening, and I was surprised by how stiffly performed it was, even by Streep. The whole thing seemed like a creaky "well-made play" from the 1950's. Granted, I never saw the play, though my partner did, but even he was a bit underwhelmed.
I'm likening it to "Agnes of God," which I did see on stage, and which was just as creaky, but at least it had performance pyrotechnics by way of Elizabeth Ashley and Amanda Plummer. The movie version was fairly forgettable (though I'll always recall Jane Fonda puffing FURIOUSLY on her cigarettes).
Posted by: jj | Dec 5, 2008 5:33:47 PM
I'm looking forward to this, the play was amazing so even though Hoffman seems miscast to me I' really excited.
I want to point out that the play is NOT about the molestation scandal. It doesn't address it because that's not what it's about. It's about doubt, the danger of insisting on certainty. I think saying it's about molestation or the molestation scandal does a disservice to this really fascinating play.
Posted by: DB | Dec 5, 2008 5:59:44 PM
And WHY didn't they let Cherry Jones reprise her role as Sister Aloysius for the film? She was brilliant in the role!
I love Streep but she didn't seem right in the short clip I just watched.
Posted by: Greg | Dec 5, 2008 6:15:02 PM
And WHY didn't they let Cherry Jones reprise her role as Sister Aloysius for the film? She was brilliant in the role!
I love Streep but she didn't seem right in the short clip I just watched.
Posted by: Greg | Dec 5, 2008 6:15:26 PM
Leave it to David Ehrenstein to get the theme of Doubt all wrong. Doubt is about pedophilia the way A Streetcar Named Desire is about the New Orleans tramway system.
Posted by: Sean | Dec 5, 2008 6:25:40 PM
the trailer for this film is unwatchable and cringe-worthy.
Posted by: Pbar | Dec 5, 2008 6:29:31 PM
A play about the RC scndals that ISN'T about pedophilia and its enablers is a waste of time -- and brain cells.
Sean apprently has few of the latter
Posted by: David Ehrenstein | Dec 5, 2008 8:24:58 PM
David, are you REALLY that obtuse? Doubt is about the quandry of moral certainty that uses a case of possible pedophilia in the RC as a backdrop. It's not an indictment or portrait of a pedophile.
And here's a personal request David: I've had the misfortune to sit right behind you at two press screenings this year and when you fidget in your seat the way you're prone to do, you make it incredibly difficult for people behind you to see the screen. Please be more respectful.
Posted by: Sean | Dec 5, 2008 9:10:20 PM
DOUBT isn't really about the famed RC pedophilia scandals, it settles for being a did-he-or-didn't-he tease that pretends it is dealing with bigger issues than it really is. You never really find out for sure whether or not he did it. Why? Because there's DOUBT!! DOUBT!! DOUBT!! GET IT!! THERE'S DOUBT!!!!!
The play was a bore. I can't imagine the film would be any different.
Posted by: Roscoe | Dec 5, 2008 9:26:27 PM
Thanks for the thoughts here. I have seen the trailer for "Doubt" probably a dozen times at the indy theater I go to every week or so. Merely from the preview, it looks so remarkably heavy handed and bad, that I've left the theater for a last minute bathroom break when it comes on.
I thought it was just me. But it does look like someone yelled, "Okay everybody: ACT!"
Of course, I'm prepared to be wrong, because last night I went to see "Milk" which I fell asleep during, and found to be shallow and dull. And it told me nothing about Harvey Milk. It lost me 7 minutes into the film when Milk's lover puts whipped cream on his nose in bed, and then eats a bite scrapping his teeth against the fork.
So, I may take a pass on "Doubt" because I'm not up for sitting through a movie and noticing its every single flaw.
I came home and watched "Murderball."
Posted by: GlENN | Dec 6, 2008 8:42:26 AM
The play "Doubt" strikes home the idea that once someone accuses you of particularly disgusting crimes, it's nearly impossible to emerge from the cloud of doubt that will hang over your head forever. This is true even if there isn't an atom or a tittle of actual evidence to support the accusation made against you. This happens every day, within and without the Catholic Church.
Unfortunately, the movie seems to lose the punch the stage play had, so this salient message gets lost on the big screen. But this is often the fate of many stage plays that should have remained on the stage...
Posted by: Nathan James | Dec 6, 2008 9:31:41 AM
I don't know if the majority of the posters on this message board are gay, but if most of you are gay, then you are an embarrassing representation of gay men everywhere. Many of you obviously have not seen "Doubt," and already, you are bad mouthing it in the bitchiest ways of expression. Every time I visit this message board, I come away being reminded of why many people who are not gay, are not very fond or respectful of gay people.
See the film before you decide to judge it.
Posted by: rebirthgil | Dec 7, 2008 3:18:53 PM