The Good Doctor (2012/Magnolia DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: C     Film: B-

 

 

Orlando Bloom switches gears and takes an interesting risk playing a new doctor in a U.S. hospital from England who knows his internal medicine, but not necessarily his internal self in Lance Daly’s The Good Doctor (2012) which amounts to one of Bloom’s best acting performances to date.

 

He plays Doctor Martin Blake, a well-mannered, well-kept, well-spoken, nice guy who has arrived to do a year of residency and already is inquiring about a program to give him more merit.  At first, he seems to have it together and definitely knows what he is doing.  Then slowly, we start to realize something is a little off kilter about their new MD.  He is very good and personable with his patients, but he suddenly becomes interested in a beautiful young lady (Riley Keough) and is happy when he is invited by the family for dinner for helping her with a potentially bad infection.  So happy in fact, he gets her capsule medicine and refills each one with sugar so she’ll get sick again and land up back in the hospital!

 

She also has a boyfriend who is not exactly citizen of the month and we wonder how that will play itself out.  He has a good boss (Rob Morrow), a nurse (Taraji P. Henson) who might have it out for him, an orderly (Michael Pena) who is constantly inappropriate & obnoxious and starts taking other odd liberties (and worse) to have things go more his way.

 

Is he just a little sick, a potential killer, needs the attention and relationships so badly or is he an outright sociopath who has to be stopped before it is too late?

 

The screenplay by John Enbom is very cleaver, thorough and generates genuine suspense because along with the potential crimes here, we get well-developed characters all around, serious character development of our title character, a look at the medical industry itself and a sly, subtle and smooth questioning of our lives in general that succeeds more than it fails.  The only thing holding this all back is that we have seen a little bit of this before and the makers take the subtle route more than I would have liked.  Still, this is one of the best independent productions of the year and one worth going out of your way for.

 

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is a little softer than I would have liked, surprising for a film shot on 35mm film stock, so we gather the downtrade from film to HD to standard definition for this release is the issue, though this has also been released on Blu-ray, so get that version if you can over this.  Still, this is a very well shot motion picture by Director of Photography Yaron Orbach, with subtly interesting uses of light and color in ways many might miss.

 

The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 fares better with a quiet, dialogue-based mix (save when the music or some dramatic moments kick in) but I expect it would be cleaner, warmer and clearer on a lossless Blu-ray.

 

Extras include the Original Theatrical Trailer and two brief featurettes with some overlap: AXS TV: A Look At The Good Doctor and The Making Of The Good Doctor.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo