Mud Songs

Doubt will undoubtedly make it to many Top 10 lists for 2008. Meryl Streep and/or Philip Seymour Hoffman will be nominated for an Academy Award for sure. But even with an intelligent script and outstanding performances, Doubt is probably too slow and serious for many viewers. It’s about a nun who accuses a Catholic priest of doing some bad things with a young boy even though she doesn’t have any conclusive proof that harm has been done. Who’s in the right? Who’s in the wrong? I don’t know. But it’s a good movie.

The Savages has Philip Seymour Hoffman doing a version of William Wharton’s Dad, the story of a brother and sister (Laura Linney) coming together to take care of their ailing father. It seems almost lightweight compared to Hoffman’s performance in Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead, but it’s a good story.

Directed by Sydney Lumet. If you think you have problems or that your family is messed up or that your life hasn’t turned out the way you hoped it would, watch Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead and you’ll be grateful for everything you’ve got. It’s difficult to talk about the plot without giving away the story, but it involves two brothers who plan a heist that goes all wrong. And that’s just the beginning of their troubles. It’s the kind of story that only exists in movies, but the people feel so real, their reactions to the extreme circumstances so genuine, that it works. It’s completely engaging. The entire cast — Philip Seymour Hoffman, Albert Finney and even Ethan Hawke — couldn’t have given better performances. When you see acting on this level, you quickly realise how mediocre most actors are and what a challenging profession it really is. (Marisa Tomei has a major role, but they don’t give her much to do except take off her shirt.) It’s not a happy movie (though I had to laugh at the absurdity of it all from time to time), but it’s so over the top and compelling, it’s difficult to look away.

Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman all give excellent performances in Charlie Wilson’s War, a political comedy that tells the story of how the US got involved with Afghanistan by giving them rocket launchers to blow up Soviet helicopters. It’s more entertaining than laugh-out-loud funny, and it’s informative if, like me, you don’t know much about it, and it’s timely given the complete mess Afghanistan and the Middle East are today.