Ending my accidental hiatus

Wow, it's unintentionally been a long time since I posted. Our two-week GFY Christmas break turned into an all-out Internet vacation for me, and it's been tough sledding getting back into the swing of things. Hanging around the house doing nothing but play the Wii is surprisingly fulfilling.

Kevin and I had an awesome Christmas. It's the first time either of us has spent one without family members around us, and bless him, knowing how much I love that holiday, he was nervous it would be sad for us. So he snuck out into the living room and added a bunch of extra decorations and lights to surprise me on Christmas Day. We made breakfast, we slowly picked our way through the pile of presents, we called our families, we snuggled up on the couch and talked about everything we've gone through and we've done in the past year, we played with some of our new stuff, and we made cheese fondue. Mmm.

On Christmas Eve, we hewed to one of my family traditions, which is eating bangers and mash and then watching Blackadder's Christmas Carol. There is a British market near me that's right next door to a pub, and my gut feeling they'd sell proper English sausages paid off -- I got them, we cooked them on the barbecue (my favorite way), and served them with truffled potato and parsnip mash alongside some grilled asparagus and caramelized onions. It was beyond delicious; I can't believe we made it to midnight mass, because the food coma was intense, but we did. Neither of us have gone to mass in a long time, so we thought a midnight celebration at our local parish -- which has an unbelievable, professional-quality 20-person co-ed choir and 34-piece string orchaestra, plus organist -- would be a lovely thing to do together. They sang the majority of the mass, and they're truly as talented as we'd heard -- but in the end, it was a bit of a problem, because they're SO good that the director displays no restraint. They'd do three songs where one was sufficient, and they never skipped any verses, so the mass ran to about an hour and a half, maybe longer. Starting at MIDNIGHT. Since they only do two other masses -- one on Christmas Eve at 5 and one on Christmas Day at noon -- we thought this was our best bet for getting in and getting a seat without being flanked by parents trying to keep their squirmy kids from running away, or having to show up an hour early. I'm not sure we will manage it ever again, though. People, I am old. That is nuts.

I did see quite a few movies: Seven Pounds had the least surprising "surprise twist" of any movie in a long time, and Will Smith practically did smell-the-fart acting through most of it; Twilight sucked in ways I both expected it to and which were surprising to me; Bolt was super, super cute, and cool in 3-D; Frost/Nixon was totally compelling, and Frank Langella was brilliant as Nixon; and Doubt was disappointing. In the case of the latter, I think it's because I was spoiled by seeing the play, and in the version that was staged here in L.A., they did a brilliant job of maintaining a fascinating anbiguity throughout -- it really was not clear whether the priest was guilty of anything. The actor played him as a charismatic young guy, more of a reformer who wants to make the Church more accessible and bond with the kids rather than rule them by fear, and then as the story unfolds you see both why the evidence seems suspicious and also why there are great arguments for his innocence. You don't know who to believe, and the success and impact of the last line of the production hinges on achieving that balance. In fairness, I've heard that the success on this front depends on which actors you saw, but I've heard from more than one person in more than one city that they felt the question of his guilt felt totally open-ended at the end. Normally I like answers, but in this play I found the lack of them to be its power.

In the movie, the playwright -- who adapted and directed -- made the interesting choice of showing the kids, which I understand because it's tough to hang a film on five actors, one of whom is only in it for one scene. But the kids' presence hurt it, especially one in particular who seemed there to go overboard in trying to make the priest look guilty. Another problem is with Philip Seymour Hoffman. His performance seemed clammy, like his character constantly had sweaty palms, and his red, wet eyes seemed nervous, as if he walked around all the time on edge. Yes, he has moments of charisma, but overall the character exuded creepiness in Hoffman's hands, and so the movie felt much more like an expose. It took the sense out of the final scene because by the end his guilt doesn't seem doubtful at all.

A friend told me he read that the playwright tells every actor who plays the priest exactly what the deal is, and my friend's theory is that the priest is NOT guilty in this instance but has indeed been guilty of misdemeanors in other parishes and is trying to get past them and rebuild himself. If that's true, it makes a bit of sense, because Hoffman's performance felt like he was armed with that information and overplaying it.

So, that -- plus a LOT of football -- was my holiday. Hopefully, we're back to my regularly scheduled blogging.

Comments

[tiffany]

I agree with your review of "Doubt." I too saw the play (at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta) and thought there was more tension and mystery on stage. At the end of the play, you really aren't sure who was wrong.

Film is a more literal medium. That changes the story automatically. But Hoffman's performance and the presence of the kids -- particularly William London, the "bad" kid who smokes, cuts school, and pulls away from Father Flynn in two critical scenes -- really leaves you certain that the Father Flynn did something awful.

I think your friend is on to something, with that theory. I'll take it one step further: I don't think Donald was the victim in the movie. I think William London was. Sister Beauvier says William pulling away from Father Flynn is what aroused her suspicions in one of the movie's earlier scenes. William's actions -- and the focus on those actions -- make more sense in that light.

[Kristin]

I couldn't get into Twilight in the theater; there were too many giggly teenage girls in there that alternately made me want to smack them and made me feel a hundred and ten because I wanted to smack them. Doubt has been on my list to see because I love Meryl Streep and would see her do anything.

[Heather]

Streep IS good in it, for sure -- I would definitely recommend seeing the movie. Whether you know the play or not, whether you think it's too obvious or not, it's totally worth seeing.