Lovefilm

My beau recently gave me a voucher for two months free of Lovefilm.

The first two films to arrive (be watched and sent back in record time) were Doubt (2008) and Ne le dis à personne/Tell No One (2006)

They were both very good - I never felt my attention wavering - but I suspect that I expected too much from them and was actually a little disappointed.

From the start of Doubt it's pretty clear this was adapted from a play. And, to be honest, I don't know that it gained much more in movie-form. Well, besides four Oscar-nominated actors. 

The film takes place in 1964 at a Catholic school in the Bronx. Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep), after a couple of convenient and exaggerated assumptions shared by Sister James (Amy Adams), accuses Father Flynn (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) of child abuse and paedophilia. As can be inferred, the film leaves you with numerous doubts. About people, about propriety, religion, race, relationships...everything.

As you've also probably inferred, the performances are astonishing. 

Meryl Streep is pretty much the Chuck Norris of acting. 

However, I would have liked to have felt more tense and more uncomfortable during the various Streep-Hoffman showdowns. I realise that's a strange thing to say, but I think I mean that there could have been more chemistry between the two. 

Adams is beautiful and tragic. Watching her innocence slip away from her is heartbreaking. 

I also would have liked to have seen more from Joseph Foster and Viola Davis, who play, respectively, the boy Father Flynn is accused of abusing and the boy's mother, Donald and Mrs. Miller. I was immediately impressed by Joseph Foster, while Viola Davis artfully became a character that, in some ways, it could have been hard to believe in. I suppose their lack of screentime is appropriate since the film is about gossip. Afterall, the subjects of gossip rarely seem to have much say in the rumour that concerns them or its consequences.

Doubt is an effective allegory that really embraces its theme of uncertainty. It did absorb me, but I wouldn't watch it again for a good while.

I don't think I really understood what to expect from Tell No One. It's a murder-mystery thriller whereas I'd anticipated something more subtle. All the same, this is a really great piece of French Cinema.

So, the plot: the film begins eight years ago where we are introduced to Alex and Margot Beck and their idyllic married life in the French countryside. One night at Lake Charmaine, Margot is murdered and Alex beaten unconcious. Despite many inconsistencies in accounts of the crime, the case is closed and a serial killer is blamed. 

Then, after eight years of attempting to put his life back together, Alex receives a link to a video that shows Margot on a busy street.

I have to admit, I am a sucker for a good thriller mystery plot and this really is a great one. Every attempt I made to beat them to the conclusion was thwarted. With a lot of style.

So as to avoid ruining the twists, I won't say much more but a couple of general thoughts:

The soundtrack really kicks ass. It isn't traditional, but it fits wonderfully. It made me believe in the film more thoroughly. I became invested in these characters and the soundtrack made this more intense emotionally.

There's a whole spectrum of beautiful French women in Tell No One. It's kind of mindblowing. Clearly, I'm going to have to watch I've Loved You So Long after seeing Kristin Scott Thomas in this.

Another beautiful French female that features in Tell No One is Nina, the Briard.

Nina is Beck's dog, but she moonlights as Bubastis, Ozymandias' pet and protector.

I'm excited for my next films to arrive, but chances are I won't keep up these indulgent review posts.