Woe to me that I did not see the touring production of Doubt when it came to Chicago a couple of years ago with Cherry Jones in the lead. The power of this script and the charisma of Ms. Jones apparently made for a compelling combination. And now having seen the film version of it, I can understand why. Watching the film I kept trying to imagine the stage performances. Bad on me for not focusing on the stellar performances at hand.
Does anyone else feel that Meryl Streep's performances have become all about the accent? I don't begrudge any actor for using some aspect to get into the character they are charged with playing, but I would like to see a powerful performance by Ms. Streep that doesn't involve some kind of drawl, or twang, or yap or other. I think this prevented me from completely enjoying her performance. I kept waiting for the crack in the armour of Sister Aloysius. I had to wait until the final moment of the film. If Sister Aloysius is supposed to mirror the tension built over the course of the story, then it didn't build that strongly for me. Although the release at the end did bring tears to my eyes.
The other two primary performances in the film are good, but perhaps not as nuanced as I might have expected. Philip Seymour Hoffman is very relaxed and "natural" as Father Flynn which sits well in this part. Flynn represents a new "kinder" clergy in the Catholic Church, as opposed to Streep's Aloysius who is straight out of Vatican I. Amy Adams is appropriately mealy in the role "caught in the middle". The locations of church, school, rectory, and nunnery (that's not the right word, help me here....) are all lovely and slightly tarnished if not actually dilapidated.
Doubt
by John Patrick Shanley
opened on Broadway in 2005
Film directed by Shanley opened in 2008
Cast: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis
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