Doubt(2008)

An intriguing, disturbing, insightful and a power movie. It comes from the hit play on Broadway. Tells the story of a implied gay priest in the 1960's at Catholic school who takes an inappropriate relationship with a black boy at a recently integrated school. The principle, a head nun, takes a suspicion of him because she suspects he is a homosexual. One day, one of the nuns smells alcohol on the boys breathe after he comes back from a private conference with the priest.

The head nun, played by Meryl Streep, Sister Aloysius Beauvier, starts a crusade against the priest. In that process, she speaks to the mother who is more worried about her husband beating her son because he suspects his son is gay. The mother is complaisant to an inappropriate relationship her son and the priest, because, at least, someone is caring for her son despite the price.

The priest played by Philip Seymour Hoffman is obviously protecting the child and is aware of his situation, but he is hiding something. It is never clear what he is hiding. Is it that he is gay? Is it that something happened? Or is it that something happened in his past? Whatever it is he fights hard to hide from Sister Beauvier. She threatens to bring out some past allegation from a previous school he worked at. She doesn't really know anything, but she buffs and he resigns.

The story seems like a side bar of the real story of moral themes of kindness, doubt, fear, gossip and suspicion. The movie is filled with discussion of these themes.

The movie is heavy. You walk out unsure of a lot of things.

Merly Streep's performance is the best I have seen this year. She probably deserves another Oscar. There were are very strong performances by Philip Seymore Hoffman, and Amy Adams who's body language is still very girlie like in Enchanted despite being a troubled Nun.

Doubt is one of the few cerebral movies out this year. Definitely one of the best. I actually paid full price on this one!

Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)

OK, here is another attempt to make an entertaining movie about relevant geo-political players in the post 9/11 world. Does it work? No.

Even if you throw Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Afghanistan or Pakistan, you still don’t have good movie.

The problem with the movie is that it tries to do too many things. It tries explaining to the audience who the players are and how the Unites States Government works, how the CIA works, a romance between Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, a bromance between Tom Hanks and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and a Hanks charm movie. The real problem with these movies is that nobody really understands what is going on in the world. Eventually, I am sure Hollywood will get it right, but not here.

The movie very poorly tries to explain how Afghanistan went from a Cold-War success for the United States to a place which shelters America’s greatest enemies. If you blink, you can miss that.

Charlie Wilson’s war tells the story how one little known congressman personally got a cold war against the Russians in Afghanistan in the 1980’s going with the help of Neo-Conservative woman from Texas and a CIA agent. Tom Hanks who plays Charlie Wilson tries to carry this movie as he does his Tom Hanks charm. He works well with Hoffman, and both are excellent in his role. Hoffman plays Gust Avrakotos, a CIA agent. Who must be some sort of play on former CIA director George Tenet, who is also a son Greek immigrants.

Hanks and Roberts don’t work. Roberts who seems to play her role as just a bitch, seems to be trying to out stage Hanks in every seen. The semi-romance just doesn’t seem believable. They seem like people who just use each other for whatever they need. not They care for each other out of gain.

It does do some things right. They capture the Islamic rage and suffering. The military scenes seem to have a fair amount of realism to them. The director, Mike Nichols, lets the actors do their thing. Hanks and Amy Adams were as charming as ever.

Overall, the movie seem is boring at times, uneven, and mildly entertaining. It needed more drama, more story, and maybe a little more style. The whole Texas thing just didn’t cut it.

The Savages (2007)

This is the most depressing movie I have seen all year. I say this not a criticism, but as a fact. The reason why it is so depressing is because it gets so many things right. Written and directed by Tamara Jenkins, it seems like she must have had time with these characters in therapy grab their essence so well. Of course, Laura Linney, who is best being crazy but fragile, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who is brilliantly flawed, are perfect for their roles.

Linney plays Wendy a 39 year old over-educated woman working as a temp in New York City. Not sure how she pays the rent. She is in a small apartment with a foldout bed. She is in an unhealthy almost totally sexual relationship with a married man 13 years older than her. She is functionally sad.

Her brother, the Hoffman character, is an obese professor living Buffalo, who receives a hysterical phone call from his sister that their estranged father is in trouble. He seems to be used adding a rational counter-balance to his sister’s emotions. Later in film we learn that he is emotionally withdrawn, and cries at inopportune moments, such as when eating eggs. He is 42 years and claims to not be ready for marriage as his Polish girlfriend of three years goes back to Poland after her visa expires. Ever the rationalist his decisions lack an emotional compass.

Both characters seem so typical in real life.

When we meet the father we get a sense of the children’s backgrounds growing up with an emotionally and physically abusive father. There mother was completely out of the picture.

The father is living in Arizona with his girlfriend who just past away, and now he has no place to live. He is no longer able to care for himself.

The process of the health-care industry, the emotional drama of picking up the pieces of a life and ship it to place where they will die, was done is extreme accuracy. The moments of packing up their father’s pocessions, finding a nursing home, dealing with the staff, taking the loved one out to a restaurant to get out for a moment, it is all too real. So much so that it could be training for adults with older parents. I couldn’t help thinking will I have to do that.

At the very end, there is a little hope, maybe.

When I saw them film, in the audience were senior citizens in crowd who seemed offended that people were laughing at the plight of life at the nursing home. I guess for them it wasn’t funny. Actually, I didn’t think much was funny in the film, unless it was tragically funny. There was a seen where they were playing a scene from the Jazz Singer (1928), where Al Jolson was putting on back-face. The movie was a film the father picked out, and pained expressions on his children faces was funny if you can relate in someway.