Doubt

Last night I escorted the lovely Suzanne to a film. She wanted to go see "Doubt," which I had seen some clips of during the Academy Awards ceremony so I was at least aware of it. Well, I must have been distracted during the Oscars because I must say that it was horrible! I had gotten beforehand that it was about priests and nuns but I suppose I was thinking more along the lines of "The Bells of St. Mary's" with Father Flanigan and Ingrid Bergman and all of that jazz. This movie was about...well, it was mostly about a lot of talking...but, it was horrible.  The young priest in the film reminded me of a fellow that we had at my church when I was a lad, wonderful fellow. Let's just say that this movie kept me awake most of the night re-examining my days as an altar boy.

I was completely disappointed. I loved Meryl Streep in "Mama Mia" and I had hoped that it had marked a new and better direction for her career (although don't get me started on the casting of the male leads in that movie). I adored Amy Adams in "Enchanted." I'm not overly familiar with the actor that played the priest, although in talking with Suzanne afterwards I do believe that I remember his role in "Twister" with the always fantastic Helen Hunt. I went in hoping for light and touching and instead the filmmakers kicked me in the head.

Much as Hugh Jackman expressed during the Academy Awards telecast I can only hope that we're headed towards a revival of the kinds of movie musicals that I grew up loving. A good old fashioned boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy sings song to get girl back kind of story is just the thing to lift the spirits. Certainly more so than clap-trap like "Doubt" or "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" which I was also bamboozled into as well. Although, I did like "Slumdog Millionaire," those kids were just so spunky!

Two more words about the Oscar ceremony -- Beyonce. Stunning.

Of course, Suzanne's now mad at me because she thought that "Doubt" was in her words an "amazing character study" and kept talking about how much she would've given up to play the young nun. But that's actresses for you...toss them a role where they can emote till their hearts content and they'll let their id run wild until the cows come home. That's what makes them so exciting and complex. Sometimes you just never know what you're going to get when you're with them.