Friday
07Nov2008
Early 'Doubt' Review Doubts Streep
Friday, November 7, 2008 at 4:05AM
In the past, I've done OK predicting the Oscar races
well in advance, at least as far as the acting awards go. Sometimes you don't
even need to see them to figure out what's going to win: Helen Mirren playing
the Queen of England, Renee Zellweger in Cold Mountain, Jamie Foxx in
Ray (if you'd seen Collateral at that point, that is). 
So, yes, I believe Streep will get her 15th nomination for Doubt, and to top it off, she'll get two Golden Globe nominations, for that film and Mamma Mia! But I predicted she'd win for Doubt. It's coming out at the right time, it has the Broadway pedigree, it's serious, and it's Streep. Plus, when you consider that likely nominee Anne Hathaway was a few months old the last time Streep won an Oscar, you could say she's due. I mean, she's the best actress of her generation, if not ever. You can't shut her down at two Oscars.
Well, Todd McCarthy of Variety has seen Doubt, and he says that the one "iffy element" is - surprise, surprise - Meryl Streep:
"This master screen actor, who applies a slight New Yawk accent to her phrasings, takes the vocal low road here as opposed to the more forceful approach of Cherry Jones in her riveting Broadway turn. By ostensibly underplaying the role’s villainy, however, Streep overdoes the melodrama, thereby turning Sister Aloysius into more of a stock figure than she ultimately seemed onstage. Every little tic, gesture and facial mannerism seems maximized by the effort expended to minimalize them, to diminished returns in the cause of creating a three-dimensional character. While the dramatic scenes still register with notable force, it’s a disconcerting, unsatisfying performance from a thesp who most of the time rings true."
I love Variety's use of half-words like "thesp." Anyway, he wasn't bowled over. Now, Todd McCarthy has been wrong before; he liked The Beverly Hillbillies movie, for example. But in his defense, he's actually seen the movie and I have not. However, since we know that the Oscars are only 70% dictated the quality of a performance or a film and 30% dictated by its buzz and marketing, I'm still sticking with Streep, unless it really is so bad that people are distracted by it. I don't give that much chance of happening, though.
Colin Boyd | Permalink | in Academy Awards, Doubt, Meryl Streep, Reviews | Print Article | Email Article | 2 Comments | Share Article
Reader Comments (2)
Well, probably Todd McCarthy hadn't seen the same movie that everybody else did. I've been reading some reviews about it and all say what one can put in words about Meryl Streep: she is the best.
Here's what Emanuel Levy said:
Mark your Oscar ballots: The great Meryl Streep gives another stellar performance in "Doubt," the screen version of John Patrick Shanley's acclaimed Broadway play about religion, morality and authority. Carrying the major burden of the film on her robust shoulders, Streep will no doubt receive her 15th Oscar nomination for playing Sister Aloysius Beauvier, a tyrannical nun whose rigid values and wish to maintain order might blind her ability to see truth and justice.
http://www.emanuellevy.com/article.php?articleID=11738
And what the great Cherry Jones said:
http://goldderby.latimes.com/awards_goldderby/2008/11/meryl-streep-do.html
Well, yeah, Meryl Streep deserves that third Oscar more than anybody at this point.
Either Todd McCarthy really loves Cherry Jones or he wasn't at the same screening because the other dozen critics have praised Streep.