<P> The 2008 Sundance Film Festival saw the release of Sunshine Cleaning, a comedy - drama about two sisters (played by Adams and Emily Blunt) who start a crime scene clean - up business . Adams was attracted to the idea of playing someone who constantly tries to better herself . Mick LaSalle of San Francisco Chronicle considered Adams to be "magical", adding that she "gives us a portrait of raging want beneath a veneer of surface diffidence". In the 1939 - set screwball comedy Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Adams starred as an aspiring American actress in London who encounters a middle - aged governess named Miss Pettigrew (played by Frances McDormand). Stephen Holden of The New York Times drew similarities to her role in Enchanted and wrote that the "screen magic" she displays in such endearing roles "hasn't been this intense since the heyday of Jean Arthur". </P> <P> Adams next starred in Doubt, an adaptation of John Patrick Shanley's play of the same name . The production tells the story of a Catholic school principal (played by Meryl Streep) who accuses a priest (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) of pedophilia; Adams features as an innocent nun embroiled in the conflict . Shanley initially approached Natalie Portman for the part but offered Adams the role after finding her innocent, yet intelligent persona similar to that of Ingrid Bergman . Adams identified with her character's ability to find the best in people; she described her collaboration with Streep and Hoffman as a "master class" in acting . Writing for the Houston Chronicle, Amy Biancolli commented that Adams "sparks with distressed compassion", and Ann Hornaday opined that she "exudes just the right wide - eyed innocence". Adams was nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress . </P> <P> As with Junebug and Enchanted, Adams' roles in her three 2008 releases were those of the ingénue--innocent women with a cheerful personality . When asked about her being typecast in such roles, Adams said that she responds to characters who are joyful and identified with their sense of hope . She believed that despite certain similarities in their disposition, these characters were vastly different from one another; she said, "Naïveté is not stupidity, and innocent people are often very complex ." </P> <P> The 2009 fantasy adventure film Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, starring Ben Stiller, featured Adams as the aviator Amelia Earhart . It was the first motion picture to film inside the National Air and Space Museum in Washington . The director Shawn Levy said that the role allowed Adams to showcase her acting range; Adams believed it to be the first time she was allowed to play a confident character on screen . Despite mixed reviews, Adams' work was praised . Terming her "a sparkling screen presence", Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune thought that the film "radically improves whenever Amy Adams pops up". That same year, Adams starred in the comedy - drama Julie & Julia as disgruntled government secretary Julie Powell who decides to blog about the recipes in Julia Child's cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking; in a parallel storyline, Meryl Streep portrays Child . Adams enrolled at the Institute of Culinary Education to prepare for the part . Carrie RicKey of The Philadelphia Inquirer thought that the film was "as delicious as French cuisine" and found Adams to be "at her most winsome". Both Night at the Museum and Julie & Julia were commercial successes, with the former earning over $400 million . </P>

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