“Doubt”
Meryl Streep brings her characteristic focus and wily craft to Sister Aloysius, the steely principal of a Catholic school in the Bronx, circa 1964.
When a charismatic young priest named Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) shows an interest in the newly integrated school’s only black student, Sister Aloysius entertains suspicions about the priest’s motives. But the story comes to be about much more than just Father Flynn’s guilt or innocence: power, spiritual discipline, institutional politics and corrupt hierarchical rot.
Just when you begin to think you know who the cat and mouse really are, in steps Viola Davis to steal not just her scene but the entire movie. As the mother of the student in question, Davis presents “Doubt” with its most sobering and finally haunting philosophical quandaries.
Rated: PG-13, contains thematic material.
DVD extras: Commentary with writer/director John Patrick Shanley; featurettes.
“The Tale of Despereaux”
The film’s titular mouse is a big-eared outcast who has been an embarrassment since birth.
There is also Roscuro (Dustin Hoffman), something of an epicurean rodent who has come to the Land of Dor for the annual unveiling of a new soup.
Matthew Broderick makes Despereaux sound like a white guy from the suburbs; Hoffman is terrific, just as he was earlier this year in “Kung Fu Panda.” Neither, however, provides enough of a reason to care.
Rated: G; contains moments of peril.
DVD extras: Featurettes; games; interactive map of Dor.
“Yes Man”
Why did Jim Carrey make this movie? The film doesn’t have a plot; it has a premise.
What if someone never says no? Will his life improve by 1,000 percent? Yes. And that’s it. There’s no more to it than that.
Open yourself up to experiences, and your life will burst into confetti and you will meet and fall in love with Zooey Deschanel.
Is there anything good about the film? Yes. Terence Stamp, the lion-faced Brit, plays the self-help guru who converts Carrey into a yes man.
Rated: PG-13; contains crude sexual humor, language and brief nudity.
Also
“Alexandra,” “American High School,” “Beverly Hills 90210: Season 7,” “Donkey Punch,” “Faith Like Potatoes,” “I.O.U.S.A,” “Last Days of the Filmore,” “Operation Valkyrie” and “TCM Spotlight: Doris Day Collection.”
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