Doubt (2008)

"Doubt" has a knockout cast with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis, and a well-loved stage play as its source. But it is a let-down.

The set-up: Hard ass, "God Hates You" flag waiver Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Streep) accuses the kind, loving Father Brendan Flynn (Hoffman) of sexually molesting an alter boy under his care. The priest denies doing anything wrong, other than showing the boy (who is black) compassion the child can't get from his own father.

This should be a hardcore, nail-biter game of Did He or Didn't He?!? But it's not. Instead, with Beauvier coming as a seething hell-bent nun who busts pagans, "Frosty the Snowman" and men's balls with devious religious glee, I didn't care if Flynn was guilty or not. And that's saying a lot. Under the glare of this nun, Madoff might come off as sympathetic. A film like this should make you squirm as you chose who is "right" over and over again, think "Hard Candy" where a psychopathic teen took on a child rapist. There's no challenge here, and the end "shocker" is blunted.

But the acting sells the film past all grievances, especially Viola Davis as the boy's mother who unleashes a soul-shocking nest of desire in a brief scene that is among the year's best. This mesmerizing, brilliant woman deserves every award under the sun as she paints a heart-breaking, upside down world where racism in mid-'60s America is the least of one minority family's problems. Hoffman also is in fine form and Streep is good with her 2D role. But, Davis. She's the miracle here, no doubt. B-

Frozen River (2008)

"Frozen River" is a hell of a drama for a film set at the slow and cold border of New York and Canada, where rural whites are dirt poor and just a notch above native Mohawk Indians only because ... well, they're not bound for discrimination.

One of the whites is Roy Eddy (Melissa Leo), the mother of two boys staring down a long road of poverty and misery after her gambling-addict husband ditches the family for Atlantic City. She has a crap home, a crap job, a crap car and crap finances. Then she comes across the chance to make quick fistfuls of money. The trick: She has to smuggle illegals across the frozen solid body of water that separates the good ol' U.S. of A. and Canada. It's against the law and highly dangerous, but Leo has no choice. Her family will starve or freeze to death in their wreck of a home.

Written and directed by Courtney Hunt, this is as real life as dramas get. This isn't a Hollywood fantasy where all turns out right when the Guy gets the Girl a giant closet to fit all her designer shoes. And Leo is not in pretty pretty makeup. Bleak, desperate and sad as hell, the film still shines as this mother puts herself in danger for the love of her children.

The cast is fantastic down the line and I guess most all are non-professional. Leo is more powerful and heart-wrenching in the film's first quiet moments than any of the other 2008 Oscar contenders of seen for Best Actress. And then she gets better. With a beautiful script and handling of talent (I live the interaction of the brothers, hatred mixed with absolute love), I hope Hunt has more films in store for us. A