Movie Review: Doubt

Doubt is a tense, thought-provoking and incredibly well-written play, and it must be difficult to adapt such a dense play for the big screen. With a play there's the understanding that we're somewhat confined in terms of location and there's often a lot of talking and emoting. The film adaptation of Doubt is pretty much entirely talking and emoting. It's not that that's a bad thing, per se, it's just that it requires a bit more wrangling of the ol' attention span than most movies require. In some ways, I'm not completely sure why it was adapted for the big screen, except to cement in cinematic history these exceptional performances by some of today's Hollywood giants.

There's nothing visually interesting about it (at all), though surely the visuals aren't the focus here. The exploration of what's moral and good, which sin is greater than another sin, and the back-and-forth dance of trust and suspicion — these are central to the story that Doubt attempts to tell. But it is, well, a lot of talking. It's often absorbing because these actors so expertly guide us through the narrative, but it might take a particularly patient modern-day moviegoer to enjoy this movie.

The story takes place in a Bronx Catholic school in 1964 where the school's stern, unyielding principal, Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) becomes suspicious of the parish priest, the likable Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman), when he takes a particular shine to one boy: The school's first black student, Donald Miller (Joseph Foster). Father Flynn insists that he is merely trying to help a lonely, isolated boy, but Sister Aloysius is convinced that the nature of this relationship is inappropriate. The sweet, young nun Sister James (Amy Adams) is pulled into the conflict and doesn't know who to believe: Her kind and gentle-seeming priest or this steely nun who is utterly certain (despite a lack of hard evidence) of wrongdoing. The audience is basically in Sister James's shoes, wanting to believe the best about this seemingly good-hearted priest, but worried that if there is something going on and it goes ignored then this boy will be further harmed.

The performances are top-notch, and all the awards buzz was completely deserved. Restricted by clothing and (for the women) modest head-covering bonnets, as well as a nearly action-free script, it's up to the actors and their facial expressions, vocal intonation, and slight changes in body language to convey the emotion within this story. Lesser actors would have brought down the entire thing, but as it is, Streep, Hoffman, Adams and Viola Davis (who plays Donald's mother) manage to make this heavy, talky script loom more powerfully before us than I ever thought possible. They each have such tremendous presence, emitting a heat that we can practically feel in the audience. However, all in all it feels like watching a play, so if you aren't exactly a fan of plays, this may not be the movie for you.

Prison Break: Selfless

This episode on Prison Break, Michael got his hands on Scylla, only to be blindsided by a major betrayal. Once the dust cleared, one of the good guys was left dead.

After a steady, careful and arduous approach, Michael lays his hands on Scylla. Instantly, an alert is sent to the General, his security camera activated. The General hurries down to the chamber with his guards... only to be ambushed by Linc, Mahone and Sucre, the instant they exit the elevator. Tripping the alarm was Michael's plan all along, as it brought the elusive sixth card to Scylla. Using all six cards, Michael accesses Scylla, which is an external hard drive.

Meanwhile, at the trap set by Gretchen....

Self and "Trishanne" (aka special agent Miriam Holtz) are bound and held captive by Feng. They get into an "argument" which is actually a diversionary tactic so Self can unlock his cuffs, seize one thug's gun and take down two of the others. Trish gets free, and ends a Self-Feng showdown by gunning down the Asian. Self says he would have preferred Feng be kept alive — very much so, I later will learn.

After taunting Lincoln with information about his father, who allegedly was an executioner for the Company, the General inquires as to the gang's extraction plan. "Do you expect to just walk out of here?" he scoffs. As a matter of fact, yes, says Michael — seeing as Sara, over at the Angels of whatnot event, has gotten the drop on Lisa. Er, that is the General's daughter. Bombshell time! And that was a good one.

Meanwhile, at GATE....

T-Bag and Gretchen try to bide their time, waiting for the gang to emerge from the tunnel, unaware that they opted for an "alternate route." When Mr. White gets wise to the significant armaments "Cole" and "Susan Anthony" are hiding, Gretch gets antsy and whips our her large black... automatic weapon and corrals the GATE staff into White's office. Trishanne shows up in secret, unlocks the doors and tries to discreetly usher the staff out. White, though, gets all wimpy and makes a dash for the exit, triggering Gretch to get crazy with her trigger finger. T-Bag and Gretch run for the garage, where Trish traps her former "boss." Gretchen gets away.

Self meets up with Michael and the gang back at the warehouse, where there is much patting of backs, expressed kudos on a job well done, and celebratory drinks. Sucre even has some goofy line akin to "This beer is extra tasty because of the smell of freedom." (OK, I pretty much made that up, but seriously, those scenes foreshadowed so much imminent, Hot Shots' "Deadmeat"-type doom, it was amusing.) Self orders the transport vans for the gang, then drives off to take Scylla (so thanklessly lobbed into his passenger seat) to the senator he can trust.

But the vans never come.

And Self doesn't go to the senator.

And Michael can't reach Self on his cell.

And the transfer papers awarding Michael et al their freedom are blank.

And Self guns down Trishanne.

Self has sold out, or is anxious to if he can find a buyer for Scylla. And Michael and the gang are left with no resources, vulnerable in the warehouse. Holy double-cross!

Just a few memorable lines and such:
"Lord, I was born a rambling man."
Michael to the General as he opens Scylla: "The frustration must be killing you."
"I'm guess about right now you wish [the Company] framed someone else."
Was the "airport" the exact same set as the "racetrack"?
The "All's Well that Ends Well" book that Michael swapped for Scylla.
T-Bag trying to get Trishanne to say he may have had a future as a legit businessman.

Sarah Connor Chronicles: Strange Things happen at the One Two Point

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is really a great show. Week after week it proves that far from the Prison Break, this show lives in a category of its own, a category of awesome scripts where it’s not all about action, explosions and fights.

Doesn’t mean there won’t be some, as illustrated by Sarah when she kicked the ass of some CEO who conned her, but they favor introspection, complex characters and psychology of people as well as of machines, as odd as it may sound. This was another pretty awesome episode, and the complexity of everything that’s going on is really one that makes me love the show even more, even if I don’t understand everything, because it all feels right — and under control.

One thing I have know for a long time was that Jesse was up to no good, or at least that she was lying to Dereck. She’s had weird behaviors, memories of new timelines no one ever heard of before, and more importantly I knew she had been following John and Dereck for some time before they actually met. This episode, Dereck found out and asked her to explain. She did, by saying that she had been sent back in time - though I’m not quite sure by whom - to help John, because in the new future he’s losing it, influenced by Cameron — a machine.

After years of being close to one in our present, future John is letting her take over and that doesn’t seem to fly by the people willing to die for him, because he makes bad decision and get people killed for the wrong reasons. That’s what she said, but is that really the truth? It’s hard to tell, because it sounds very possible, and understandable, but it came with another big reveal : if I was wondering why Riley was sticking around so much, it’s because she’s on a mission, too.

Like the others she came from the future, alongside Jesse, working to get John to drop Cameron or something. But was it me, or did it sound for a moment like she had something else to do to John? “You can do this. You have to do this.” Those are the words Jesse said to Riley, talking about her mission with John, and I’m not exactly sure what it is Riley has to do. Was it just continue to pretend she’s an innocent happy teenage girl, or was there more to it ?

Her little breakdown was interesting though, it’ll be fun to watch how she manages to keep fooling everyone, and where she’s going with this. Somehow, since Jesse decided to keep lying to Dereck, I can’t see anything good coming up… Because Dereck continues to be fooled by his feelings for Jesse, and still trust her. But she isn’t being completely honest with him, and maybe the motivations she gave him for coming back in time weren’t the entire truth either. Either way, in the future we have two groups of human, and maybe two groups of machines as well.

One of them is Skynet, and every day it seems more and more to be growing up in Weaver’s basement. Dr Sherman was helping it grow, and he’s been killed as a reward. To take over is our friend Ellison, who also gave “John Henry” a new face, the one of Cromartie. So it’s more than just a face actually. And I always wondered whether Cromartie and Weaver were on the same side or not because at times they seemed to both have different and contradictory objectives.

Just look here : Weaver is using Ellison. He got her Cromatie’s body, and he’s now teaching “John Henry”, so she needs him. A few weeks back, Skyney (I assume) sent a Terminator to Ellison’s place to kill him and take over his life. That simply doesn’t make any sense, not if both are on the side team, working towards the same objective, does it?

Weaver has been known to use terms such as “faith”, much like Cromartie who said he “believed” Ellison would guide him to Sarah. Those sort of human emotions attached to machines just don’t sound very Skynet-like to me, but I might be dead wrong here. One thing for sure however is that Cameron continues to get more at ease with it, as she was seen this week laughing and making jokes about hair… how un-robotic of her.

Speaking of faith, Sarah has been having some issues on that area lately. She’s been obsessed with the three dots, and their possible meaning and connection to the future. She pushed things very too far, ending up on a wrong track and conned by some CEO who apparently had nothing to do with Skynet at all — unless he actually does, and, again, Weaver is on to something else completely.

Either way, Sarah is losing it, and her mention of her time locked up in a mental institution during the “fight” (well, she was beating him up, he was… taking it) wasn’t a coincidence, her mental state might not be so stable, as illustrated in the bathroom when she punched the mirror out of frustration. (I’m also thinking Riley’s earlier comment about mirrors might have a connection with this…)

This show is definitely one of the best thing around, and I’m glad Fox is sticking with it.

Life On Mars: The Man Who Sold The World

This was probably my favorite episode of the series so far. Sam’s interaction with his father blew away his moments with his mother in a previous episode. That makes sense, though, since he’s been away from his father for 30 years. There was so much to catch up on, so much to figure out.

I was riveted by Sam’s moments with his father. The one scene that stood out so much, yet was such a simple gesture, was Sam smelling his father’s leather jacket. Sam missed his father and loved him. At that moment, whatever reason Vic had for leaving Sam as a child was forgotten. All Sam knew after that moment was that he was going to change history, one way or another. Will the truth make him really feel any better?

Speaking of altering history, I got a bit of a game changer in this episode. If Sam’s memories from his childood are accurate and he did see a woman in a red dress (Annie) get killed, he did change the course of history. What I’m wondering, though, is whether young Sam still went into the woods to find his father and maybe saw what went on this time. If he didn’t go into the woods, why not? Was it because old Sam changed his mind in that brief moment with them together?

One thing that’s starting to bother me is how much time Sam is spending with his mother. What I mean is, with as much communication they’ve had together thus far, she’d clearly remember him in 2008. Not only that, but I hope I get some indication later that she remembered “Luke Skywalker” once the movie comes out five years later.

It looks like Sam and Annie’s relationship is starting to turn up a bit. I’m wondering if Sam will eventually forget his fiance and have more reason to stay in 1973 than to leave and go “home.”
Finally, the mysterious phone call. What I’m confused about is why Sam figured his father’s “bottom-right corner” theory meant something more, made him rush off to read a bunch of case files and somehow translate them all within a few hours to be an address.

Songs in this episode:
Bread - “Everything I Own”

Steely Dan - “Reelin’ in the Years”

David Bowie - “Life On Mars?”

Harry Nilsson - “Spaceman”

Eleventh Hour: Surge

Doesn’t everyone feel like a monkey in a maze sometime? Well, Sasha is a literal monkey, involved in a series of experiments by Dr. Bruce Nesic. Everything is fine and hunky-dory until Nesic turns his back. The next time he looks, his lab has been destroyed by a murderous rampage! Was it Sasha?

Rage infected monkeys, anyone?

Jacob and Rachel are accosted by Colonel Brooks, who works with the War Fighter Enhancement Program. It turns out the monkeys are part of experiments aimed to improve the physical performance of soldiers. Brooks asks Jacob to defend the monkey. After all, millions of dollars have been invested in this little primate. So Jacob and Rachel head out to Henderson, Nevada, to meet Nesic and Sasha. There Nesic explains that the monkeys have been given a drug to speed up chemical reactions in the brain, allowing the monkeys to react more quickly.

However, Nesic thinks that the attack in the lab was sabotage. For one thing, the recordings of the incident from the surveillance camera have been stolen. Also, Rudy Callistro, the only lab tech with access to the recordings, has gone missing.

The show cuts to a bunch of guys playing a friendly game of basketball. One of the players is not so friendly – or perhaps he just doesn’t know his own strength? – and elbows another in the face. The aggressor, Kevin Pierce, turns out to be a soldier with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder recently back from active service. He’s supposedly getting treatment for the condition from Dr. Nesic. Kevin appears reluctant to face another cycle of treatment, but he relents, and Nesic stabs him in the back of the head with a needle. Oww.

Jacob and Rachel learn about a little piece of property that Callisto’s sister owns and decide to see if he’s hiding out there. He is (of course) and he runs when he sees them. Rachel takes him down and they question him. He claims to have nothing to do with the attack. He thinks it’s Nesic’s fault, with the experiments he’s running. For instance, Sasha has gone from right to left handed. Nesic is messing with something he shouldn’t.

Returning to the lab to check on Sasha, Nesic, Rachel, and Jacob discover that Sasha is missing. Animal control goes out looking for him and one of them gets attacked in the dark. It looks like it might be Sasha, but then Jacob and Rachel find Sasha’s corpse – and it’s obviously been moved. The body was planted, and Sasha wasn’t the attacker. Sounds suspicious. When Jacob performs the autopsy on Sasha, he discovers that his Amygdalae have been messed with. The Amygdalae control the fight-or-flight response. In Sasha’s case, fighting has become basically an involuntary response.

Meanwhile, Kevin Pierce has gone missing. He went home to his wife and son for a while, but now even they can’t find him. Nesic asks Kevin’s friends about him, and none of them are very forthcoming with him. It seems that Nesic has made some enemies for himself.

Hood continues to probe the mystery of Nesic’s lab. His data shows some interesting anomalies – Nesic has been tampering with his data to get the results he wants. This sounds like probable cause to Rachel and Jacob, so they break into Nesic’s lab to get more information. They find six monkey cages, but their research tells them that Nesic had seven subjects. Subject Seven is not a monkey. Subject Seven is human.

A little basic detective footwork reveals to them that Subject Seven is Kevin. They talk to his friends, find out about his handedness changing and his pain problem, and then manage to track him. He was at a playground where he served a heaping plate of hurting to two muggers before moving on. Rachel deduces that he’s probably looking for a pharmacy to manage his pain. And indeed he has. He wallops a few police officers before Jacob talks him down. When he’s in custody Kevin passes a disc onto Jacob. It turns out to be the footage of the attacks in the labs, revealing Kevin to be the attacker. Evidently Nesic’s drug not only makes his subjects killing machines, but killing machines without consciences. Good job, Nesic.

I found this episode a little hard to follow, but that could be entirely my fault and nothing to do with the writing. It could have done with a little more banter between our scientist and handler, I think, though I enjoyed Rachel’s triumph at knowing something that Jacob didn’t. I think the episode might have gotten a bit bogged down by having two “issues.” Every episode seems to have some sort of moral issue to it, but this one had two: super soldiers and animal cruelty. Both important, but perhaps they might have been better served in two separate episodes. Maybe I’m just crabby because I didn’t like the episode.

Supernatural: Heaven & Hell

This might have been the best episode of the season so far, which says a lot considering it's the best season of the show yet, delivering one fantastic episode after the other. This episode had everything that makes this show so good, and then some.

So much to talk about, so let’s being as the episode with were we left off. The boys facing Castiel and Uriel, and not willing to give them Anna, especially if they intend to just kill her. Now I’ve always suspected that Anna wasn’t just an average girl, I already knew she had powers, but I surely didn’t expect her to be as powerful as to managed to get ride of both Uriel & Castiel like that, thanks to some bad-ass bloody spell.

Even less that, after a little session with our old friend Pamela, she would turn out to be an Angel! And you know what’s funny? I never really had a “problem” with Anna. When I didn’t know who she was, after I found out she was an Angel, I’ve always felt like she could be trusted, for some reason. I was extremely curious as to what she disobeyed, why she decided to “quit” and do what seems to be the worst thing an Angel can do, refuse to execute an order, defuse to have blind faith in God, and turn human, and I’m extremely happy that Dean eventually asked her, and that she answered it.

I liked how her years on Earth and experience down there resonated with Dean and his own relationship with his father, and again, I fully trusted her. Her story completely makes given what I know of Angels, and I never doubted what she said. At the same time, even after all she’s done, I still can’t get myself to fully trust Ruby. It’s (almost?) getting illogical, I know, and yet….
I didn’t see the whole plan to get Godzilla and Mothra to fight one another, even though you gotta admit it was pretty much the only plan they really could have had, a brilliant one at that, and at first I surely thought she was trying to sell Anna out to save herself and the boys. So even then, she wasn’t betraying them, and yet I keep wondering what her motives are, and when she tried to pushed Sam back to use his powers, it just seemed to fit right in with her hidden motives to me.

Am I forgetting Ruby’s motives ? Did she ever explain why she did all she did ? Why she was going against her “kind” ? Why she was a demon, and yet rejected their way ? What her motives for that, and for helping the boys, really were ?? I remember a few things, I know she said she remembered what it was to be human and have feelings, but I fail to remember if she ever had some strong explanations for her actions, such as what Anna gave to Dean.

CSI: Woulda Coulda Shoulda

Sometimes life and death intersect. When paramedics respond to neighbor's complaints of gunshots, they find a mother and daughter, Janelle & Nora Rowe, shot after coming home with takeout. Nora, the daughter, is still alive, and the paramedics trash the crime scene to save the girl. Unfortunate for the CSIs, but sometimes they owe the living more than the dead.

However, they don’t owe much to the suspects. Peter Rowe, Janelle’s husband and Nora’s father, comes into the house with gunshot residue on his hands. A suspect? Well, evidently he’s been out shooting in the desert. A likely story. Brass takes him into custody and questions him about his past. It turns out Peter Rowe used to be Mark Redding. Years ago Redding was being followed by a private investigator hired by his then wife. Redding was cheating, and when his wife found out their marriage ended… and P.I. Trevor Murphy disappeared. Back in the present, Rowe has been receiving anonymous threatening text messages. Perhaps his past has come back to haunt him.

Nick is out in the field looking into what looks like an alcohol-related car crash fatality involving two high school boys. They ran into the tree and then… the tree ran into them. Their bodies are basically full of wood from the tree, but there are injuries that are inconsistent with the crash, as well as some wood that doesn’t belong to the tree. After a bit of analysis they discover it’s wood from a baseball bat. I take a trip down Nick’s memory lane and learn about mailbox baseball, the practice of driving by freestanding mailboxes and bashing them with a baseball bat as you pass. It’s good fun to Nick and Hodges evidently, but it doesn’t explain why a bat wasn’t found at the scene. Or how those interesting shoulder fractures occurred just by knocking over a mailbox…

Brass does some research into the threatening texts on Rowe’s phone and traces it back to a computer on Kelsey Murphy’s IP address. Kelsey Murphy is, of course, Trevor Murphy’s daughter. She claims innocence, and Brass later learns that it was actually Nathan Murphy, Trevor’s son, who sent the texts. He says he didn’t do anything but text, and there’s not much evidence to hold him, so they let him go.

Meanwhile, Greg and Riley spend some time at the Rowe’s house. They find blood on the corner of a table and figure that comes from the laceration on Nora’s head (who may or may not pull through, by the way). Riley finds a plastic jewel inside before heading outside and finding the cell phone it belongs to. The cell phone has photos on it, and most of them were taken just before the attack. There’s an interesting one of the floor. Perhaps what the neighbors saw wasn’t actually muzzle flash but camera flash instead… and maybe the killer thought the little girl had taken an unsavory photo. That’s why the phone was nearly destroyed.

Grissom is on a bit of a mission of his own. He’s gone to visit Natalie Davis, everyone’s favorite miniature killer. She’s currently involved in a hearing to see if she’s sane enough to move out of the psych ward and into real prison. The prosecutor asks Grissom to testify as to her mental state when he interviewed her during the murders, and also to her state now. He agrees, and goes to talk to Natalie. It seems to him that she’s more normal now, actually guilty for what she’s done. He tells as much at the hearing, and it is determined that her psychosis was only temporary, and she is now as sane as anyone else.

Nick goes out to investigate the real cause behind the fractures and the baseball bat. Around the scene of the crime he discovers a house with a detachable mailbox. Hmm. The owner of the house is friendly enough… until Nick finds a hole in the ground with a mailbox full of cement in it. It turns out Mr. Jackmin was getting sick of the punks around here destroying mailboxes, so he filled one with cement and set a trap. The teens came roaring by, smacked it with a bat, and the resulting ricochet caused an injured shoulder, a car accident, and two very dead teens. Oops. Not a very nice way to teach a lesson, Mr. Jackmin.

While monitoring Peter Rowe, the CSIs see him on the hospital cameras while he is visiting his daughter. He is accosted by Kelsey and lead away. Where to? They track them down in the middle of the desert, where Kelsey is pointing a gun at Peter and telling him to dig. Evidently he confessed to killing her father and is showing her where he is buried. Brass tries to talk Kelsey down but to no avail: she shoots Peter and the cops shoot her.

It’s time to put the miniature killer to rest. Natalie is going to prison, and she and Grissom say goodbye. She expresses her regret and says that people who do bad things deserved to be punished. Evidently she means that, because Grissom finds one last miniature in her cell – a tiny figure of herself, hanging by a noose.

I was happy to see more involving the miniature killer (by far the most successful continuing plotline in CSI history) but it was brief and seems to be over now. Oh well. It’s better for it to end well than have it drag on. The case involving the two teens and mailbox baseball was fairly entertaining, though I found the arrest of Mr. Jackmin at the end to be quite harsh. I’m pretty sure he’ll be able to argue his way out of that one in court.