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Meryl Streep has probably won more awards than any other actress. She holds
the record for number of Oscar nominations, has won 2 and will probably get
another nomination for this role. She is recognized as THE actress of today and
her last three films have been big hits.
I am in the minority as I don't like Streep. I think she is too 'actressy'
and you can see her playing a fashion magazine editor, mother who owns a hotel
in Greece and a mean, determined nun but you know it is her playing the role and
she doesn't disappear into the role and become the character she is suppose to
be.
Playing opposite her in the film "Doubt" is Philip Seymour Hoffman who has
been getting many accolades the past few years for his acting but his name
doesn't draw me to a film as I feel he overacts in many of his roles. With the
exception of a scene or two he keeps subdued here and is impressive.
All the acting of supporting characters is on a high level but it is Viola
Davis who stands out in her 5-10 minutes on screen.
The character of Sister Aloysius Beauvier, played by Streep, is every cliche
of a Catholic Sister that has ever been written and, in a sense, unbalances the
main question of whether Father Brendan Flynn, played by Hoffman, is a child
molester or not. The director and writer, based on his original play, also tilts
the film with his many 'weather scenes' and almost villainess surroundings and
looks around Streep and her pinched face, always right attitude doesn't
help.
In one scene, after a story about a pillow being torn open, the director has
to fill the screen with pillow feathers floating all over and, with as much of
the movie, things are not done subtly which completely works against Streeps
final scene and doesn't ring true.
Viola Davis's scene is more emotional, powerful and meaningful than anything
Hoffman or Streep does while Amy Adams, playing young Sister James, who the film
is dedicated to, is uneven in her acting but I feel this has a lot to do with
the script.
All in all I feel this plays a lot better as a play and would have been much
better and left you with a lot more 'doubt' if someone else had played Streep's
role.
