- Title: The Good Doctor
- IMDB: link
People who work in hospitals are the most awful human beings. I don’t think that’s the message screenwrieter John Enbom and director Lance Daly set out to make with The Good Doctor, but it’s the one constant theme of the entire film.
The troubles begin for first-year resident Dr. Martin Blake (Orlando Bloom), sporting a Matthew Broderick hairdo) with a quarrelsome nurse (Taraji P. Henson) who is willing to threaten the life of a patient to prove her dominance. The ramification of her actions put him, not the nurse, in hot water with his superiors.
Things continue to go downhill for Blake when he becomes obsessed with an underage patient (Riley Keough) suffering from a kidney infection. Deciding to kill two birds with one stone, Dr. Blake lets his patient grow increasingly worse while showcasing his remarkable determination to save her, thus spending more time with the young woman he’s become obsessed with and prove his worth to his superiors.
The attempt at tension is increased when an orderly (Michael Peña) gets the whiff of an improper relationship between Dr. Blake and his patient which he uses to blackmail the doctor (despite the fact the doctor never actually did anything which would cost him his job and the orderly’s “proof” could easily be explained as the dreams of delirious dying young woman). As you might expect, things don’t turn out well.
As a showcase and acting exercise for Bloom to play against type the movie may have some merit, but as a thriller the film is far too slow paced and its complete aversion to logic or proper reasoning for characters’ actions creates huge plot issues that doom it nearly from the beginning.
Both the DVD and Blu-ray include two behind-the-scenes featurettes and the film’s trailer.
[Magnolia Home Entertainment, DVD $26.98 / Blu-ray $29.98]