Movie Monday

I’m having the whole place painted. I call it the “whole place” because it’s a loft design of about 1400 square feet so the whole place is open and therefore a “whole place.”

Everything has to come off the walls and all the furniture has to be moved at least 2 feet from the walls. That can be back breaking but we’ve made a good start.

As things get moved and stored, I’m looking at the place with different eyes. When you have a loft design, you can leave it wide open or use “barriers” to create separate areas. I chose the later. A lot of screens and very big flower arrangements. Ok, I know, flowers are the anathema of designers. But they do provide a more natural visual barrier from a window to a bed than a screen.

But with the area looking so bare and open, I’m beginning to wonder if my decorating style, which has worked extremely well in this area for so long, should be changed.

I’m being to have doubts.

Movie Review from Trailer: Doubt

Ok, I know, that was a cheap lead-in. But, in a “What I Expect Before I View The Trailer” thought, I’m thinking that my doubts about room design after many years may be mirrored, in a morally epic sense, by this movie. Let’s see.

The first image is Meryl Streep in old-fashioned nun’s (RC) garb. Her first words to a group of nun’s eating: I want you all to be alert.

I have a feeling she is also warning the audience. We, too, are to be alert.

Next shot: a child being banged on the head. Corporeal punishment existed (does exist?) in Catholic schools but unfortunately, Serevus Snape’s dramatic slap of Ron Weasley’s head has probably doomed that gesture to comedy forever.

We observe fast that Streep’s nun is not to be triffled with, even by other nuns. The priest played by Philip Seymour Hoffman observes: The dragon is hungry. Soon we learn he believes the church has to change. I expect a major clash of wills between him and Streep.

And immediately, things get serious. A young nun is telling Streep that Father Flynn called a student, Donald Muller, to the rectory. From Streep: So, it’s happened.

(Aside: This movie probably set in the late 1950's. Today, of course, we know about the sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church. Was it recognized back then? Would this be thought of immediately back then if a priest called a male student into the rectory? Or is this only a plot device? Hitchcock’s McGuffin? Used to move things along while the real drama is the clash of wills? Don’t know yet.)

Shot of a lone bell ringer, then Flynn enjoying a meal with others and Streep’s voice over: We are going to have to stop him ourselves. Wow! This nun is pissed. Title appears on the screen: There Is No Evidence.

Next scene: Streep is questioning Hoffman as to what happened in the rectory. When Hoffman says nothing happened, Streep keeps pressing. (Another aside: I know nuns smoked in private [the horror!] butwere they that confrontational with priests back then?)

Title on screen: There Are No Witnesses. And the next shoot is Father Flynn screaming: You haven’t the slightest proof. Things have really taken a turn for the worst, or for the overly dramatic.

The mother of the boy is seen talking to Streep. The young nun is telling Hoffman: You are letting then convict you of something terrible.

We see more evidence of Streep’s extreme dislike of Hoffman. Only the young nun seems able to speak to her reasonably. (Aside: From the first shot, where Streep is running the nun’s dining table with an iron fist in an iron glove, it seems unusual she would listen to a young nun’s concerns. But, does she need the young girl for her plan? That we don’t know.)

By the end of the trailer you know this is going to be a battle to the death.
Streep to boy’s mother: I’ll throw your son out of this school.
Young nun: I don’t think Father Flynn did anything wrong.
Streep: I will do what needs to be done.

What I Expect From The Movie Based On The Trailer:
Knowing modern movies and the U.S. which is adverse to intellectual controversy, I am not expecting the following, but would like to see it: a look at power, change, purity of motives, ego and clashes of wills. I would like real doubt. I don’t want this movie tied up in a box with a neat ribbon at the end. I want to leave the movie thinking. I want the doubt to lead to a good discussion.

As I’m typing this, Absence of Malice is on the TV. I remember that movie brought about a discussion of journalistic ethics when it first came out. I would like this movie to engender similar discussions. I want to leave this movie with doubt.

And, I would pay to see this movie