Doubt

Doubt
Starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams & Viola Davis

John Patrick Shanley's 2005 Pulitzer and Tony-winning play, "Doubt, a Parable," comes to the big screen with a smaller name (just drop the "a Parable" part) breathing life into the four-character original. Next to "Hamlet" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Shanley has written one of the best plays of all time - no over-exaggeration. It is perfect. So, it's worrisome to watch a sheer masterpiece on the big screen with big names: Streep, Hoffman, Adams. "Doubt" in the cinematic form is not perfection, however Shanley's screenplay portrays St. Nicholas Catholic School in a way the play only imagined, said with both approbation and uneasiness.

This story is a tricky one to adjust. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Father Brendan Flynn, a cordial, jolly priest who gains the trust of the community, the audience and his colleagues. This role is thrown into a sticky situation due to Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep), and must be interpreted with much care. Aloysius, the school's principal and Flynn's inferior, speculates that he has involved himself in inappropriate relations with one or more of her students. Hoffman's job is to gain the trust of the audience by seeming... normal. Shanley's script allows for slight creepiness to ooze out of Flynn (i.e. long fingernails and Kool-aid and cookies), but it must be subtle enough for the trust to remain. Hoffman succeeds in this task. Though many doubted the casting for Flynn, this man tackles the role like he always does.

Sister Aloysius is another role that can go terribly in the wrong direction. Honestly, the previews showed her loud, vicious side which should only come out a few times. Streep keeps her character in control, but also gives Aloysius more humanness than expected, which was very pleasing. She did not become an unbeatable force. She has weaknesses, hidden through a clouded window. The Queen of Holloywood illustrates that age will never bring her down, and I hope she earns her third Oscar for this terrific and commanding performance.

As for Viola Davis' Mrs. Miller (formerly known as Muller in the play) and Amy Adams' Sister James, Adams wins by a long shot despite all the critics' opinions. We know Adams can play the innocent, naive character ("Junebug," "Enchanted," and "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day"), and she delights us one more time as the young nun who is the go-between for Aloysius and Flynn. Though she has been nominated for a Golden Globe and a SAG, just like Davis, Adams is still underrated. Sister James is the keystone to "Doubt." She represents the audience. She embodies the adjective, "wishy-washy," which may seem like a weakness, but is in fact the essence of this movie. To doubt yourself and others is to think anew. One can either keep on believing the same thing, doing the same routine, remaining innocent, or one can change. James' psychological transformation is beautiful and sad. Because Aloysius brought the woman into a world of doubt and uncertainty, a world she can never revisit, James has new ideas and thoughts - she doubts. We, the audience, are the same as she. We are unsure of Flynn and Aloysius. We follow James, and maybe believe her more above her superiors.

Mrs. Miller, the mother of the black boy supposedly involved with Father Flynn, commands one single scene. Viola Davis arrives as the only character completely sure of themselves, even if everything else is askew. The virtually unknown actress dominates Streep, but only because the script allows her too. The woman is excellent, but overrated with the world of cinema. This woman gave a powerful performance, full of profundity on countless levels, but deserves no award over Adams as the supporting lady.

The play was Shanley's masterpiece, his baby; he had to take control in the film adaptation. Any sane person would have. However, some of his decisions in the adaptation took the story down different paths. It was the slight changes that stirred in me. The lines he cut that should have been savored and a few actions that weren't played out. Perhaps they were minuscule items that bothered him. With polished cinematography and angles that can only be defined as tipsy, the feel of the film serves as excellent and a bit unnerving.

In bringing a jewel of the stage to life on the screen, there will be some stains and spots, however, Shanley and the eternally memorable cast keep "Doubt" priceless.

Grade: A

Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire
Starring Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Anil Kanpoor, Irrfan Khan, Madhur Mittal & Ayush Mahesh Khedekar

Out of all the films that have been released this year, Danny Boyle's unforeseen yet palpable masterpiece will win the naked golden man as the best movie of the year. "Slumdog Millionaire" is a rare occasion. Pop culture and a Dickensian tale never seemed so perfect together. It's a story of rock-bottom desperation, desperate love, and a romance retelling every love story out there. It's tainted with hardships most could never comprehend, but settles in memory as pure, weightless, effortless.

Jamal Malik, a young so-called "slumdog", finds himself on the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" hosted cunningly by Anil Kanpoor who draws Regis Philbin, giving him claws. Jamal is one question away from winning the game, however, being of a unfortunate lifestyle, he's taken into custody and questioned as to how he knows all of the answers. Consequently and simultaneously, we discover both how Jamal knows the answers of the game show (such as "What U.S. president is on the one-hundred dollar bill?") and the young man's life story - which, of course, is the point of the film.

The movie opens with a question, at the time unanswerable, and ends with the answer - brilliantly, might I add. The script boils the theme of fate; that certain situations are meant to be, nothing is coincidence, and that some events are written. Jamal's life, full of such adversity, from both his society and surroundings, but most effectively, his older brother Salim. Salim's character, envious of Jamal's goodness and compassion, forces situations in which his younger brother must struggle through. Yet, Jamal never loses hope or sight of his true ambition: to find his long-lost love: Latika.

Spanning about fifteen years or more, Jamal, Salim, and Latika are played by three different performers of different ages. This can be problematic for some films, however with excellent casting and brilliant directing, "Slumdog's" three generation characters shine on their own and in their own light. Latika begins as a lost soul (Rubiana Ali), a girl with no parents and no where to go. She then forms into a beautiful young girl (Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar), about to be tainted by profiteers selling her to the highest bidder, and finally grows into the stunning woman of Jamal's dreams played glamorously by Freida Pinto. All three Salim's (Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala, and Madhur Mittal) portray a struggling brother who loses himself to the horrors and temptations of the slums. He is the Cain to Jamal's Abel, though the parable works a bit differently here.

Yet, the real power of the three actors irradiates off of the Jamal's. The youngest, played by Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, brings an unstoppable innocence and happiness to the shit that covers his life (and his entire body). He smiles and you can't help but give into his infection. The middle Jamal (Tanay Chheda) had a rough road ahead of him after such an enthralling performance by Khedekar, however, once he arrived at the Taj Mahal, Chheda overpowered us with slyness and skill. As for Dev Patel as the oldest Jamal, he allows the character a quietness mirroring his patience and his longing for Lakita. There isn't much that surprises him, though his will to find her overcomes him in an instant. He delivers a great performance for such a young, unknown actor.

Danny Boyle, the director, gives this year a world of reality and hope; something that is so polluted, it seems nothing good can come out of it. Yet, it does. A true fairy tale without the glitz and cliche, "Slumdog Millionaire" is this year's dog to bite and beat. But I doubt it will happen.

Grade: A+

Charlie Wilson's War

Charlie Wilson's War
Starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman & Amy Adams

Mike Nichols (director) swiftly pours us a vibrant shot of comedy and drama in the very first scene. Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), naked, relaxes in a hot tub with three naked women and another man. They talk about some movie the one girl's starring in, but Wilson is disinterested; he's only interested in the news on the television - the Soviet Union is taking over Afghanistan. As the story continues, we follow the playboy congressman, a renegade CIA agent (Hoffman) and a Houston socialite (Julia Roberts), who band together and pull off one of the greatest covert missions in history, which eventually aided the dismantlement of the Soviet Union and ended the Cold War. We know Nichols can do drama ("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Closer"), but I wasn't sure about comedy. However, with his incredible cast - though Roberts is a tad overrated, but still edgy - he knocks down that barrier.

Hanks leads the way through a series of awkward, hilarious situations and also through periods of anguish and loss. It's a perfect mixture. His office is run by bombshell women, all bearing cleavage, save Amy Adams who is Wilson's backbone secretary. She's smart and, though a bit pure, understands Wilson's scandalous ways. Hoffman is a complete lunatic and fits the role to a "T," and Roberts delivers a half-and-half, milked up performance.

There are scenes in "Charlie Wilson's War" that astound us. Emily Blunt plays a blouse-buttoned professional daughter of some not-so-important Texan, and as she sits in Wilson's office, she is disturbed by the sexiness of his office gals. In the next scene, however she is clad in bra, panties and stilettos, in Wilson's suite, with the Washington stud. It's hilarious! Also, as Wilson and Hoffman's Gust Avrakotos team up, trying to gain funds from other countries, the duo use lap dance persuasion tactics to draw the mullah from the countries leaders. Once again, we are dealt a double flavored shot of comedy and drama.

Yet, the truly dramatic scenes in which Hanks and Adams venture to Afghanistan to see the horrible warfare going on there is very touching. Their working relationship is great and nothing is pushed to the limits. It shows Wilson's softer side, never flirting with his secretary or going over her wall.

Though Wilson was able to boost funds from 5 million dollars to $1 billion annually, there is great tragedy in the film, for our government, once the Soviets were out, pulled out of Afghanistan, and as a result, we are now fighting the country we should have stayed to educate.

Grade: A-

No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men
Starring Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, Kelly MacDonald, and Woody Harrelson

Precise, pestilent and perfect. "No Country for Old Men" lures its watcher in close and bites him from behind. In the year's masterpiece to top, the Coen brothers adeptly create a beautiful, shocking film full of breathtaking cinematography, quick dialogue, characters that are both paramount and futile, and thrills that go beyond the genre of a thriller.

Set in 1980 Texas, we follow three braided storylines: Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) and his wife Carla Jean (Kelly MacDonald), Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), and Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem). The Moss' life revolves around getting past the next bill, but when Llewellyn comes across a drug-gang battlefield, he also falls upon a case of two million dollars - it's actually the same case and amount as the money case in "Fargo," the Coen Brothers previous work of perfection. Sheriff Bell is after the psychopathic lunatic Chigurh, who, on occasion, flips a coin to determine whether you're going to die or not.

Every second of this movie is beyond expectation, and every decision of film-making is beyond predictability. Jones adds to his 2007 repertoire ("In the Valley of Elah") with another well-defined performance. The role of Carla Jean is any understated actresses dream of playing, and MacDonald quietly delivers an unbelievable display of female rigidity, particularly her final scene which is beyond perfection and could earn her many nominations for supporting actress. Brolin commits to the performance of his lifetime. He and his character are unstoppably determined and risky, but the buzz and praise has to go to Bardem. He is so eerily calm as the psychotic mass murderer that chills run down your spine every time he graces the screen. There are scenes so grueling and terrifying that your heart begins to race while his is strangely in tune. He is fantastic and will win the Oscar.

Though there are still a handful of movies to see this year, "No Country for Old Men" tops the list so far. It's an instant classic and an instant favorite.

Grade: A+