ReDoubtable

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly:

Hoffman and Streep, especially, are also vulnerable actors in need of guidance from a director with a strong vision. And Shanley, in his first movie-helming gig since he leaped into his own script for Joe Versus the Volcano nearly two decades ago and lost, turns out to have dismayingly few original cinematic notions to back up the basic did-he-or-didn't-he hook in his study of conviction and compassion. There's not a wind-whipped leaf, rain-hammered window, or burned-out lightbulb the director doesn't admire, lest we ignore a metaphor about spiritual crisis.

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone:

Is the movie as good as the play? No, it's better. The suspense crackles, and the arguments cut deeper. Shanley, directing for the first time since 1990's unfairly maligned Joe Versus the Volcano, opens up his play, making it less academic and more human. He takes us inside the rectory and the convent. The bold vigor of his direction matches his writing, which is a high compliment. The great cinematographer Roger Deakins (No Country for Old Men) brings a lyrical poignancy to an image of the nuns in white nightgowns, silently awakening at dawn, and later to Father Flynn embracing Donald in a corridor, his compassion for the troubled boy exceeding his fears of the talk his gesture will spark.

Every time I read reviews like this, I end up wondering: Did these two watch the same movie?