The God Committee

Hard-edged look at the ethics, the compromises and the difficult choices. "The heart is just a muscle,"

This intrigued me when I saw it on Netflix as it is very well timed. A transplant was done in Maryland with a genetically changed pigs heart into a man just on Jan 7th, 2022.

This is an interesting story of a hospital's committee that has to decide who has the right to an organ that is available. So many things makes their decisions not as easy as it should be ..... as in will a donation of 25 million by the father of a man who is obviously not worthy, over a man or woman who are only rich in their families love and support.

The story spans two timelines .... one of this timeline and many years after and what the result of the decision made.

Do these things happen in some of the decision making rooms, I honestly believe they do and biases are biases .... if the person drinks, smokes, got arrested for a petty crime decades ago .... and so it goes. Interesting story but not if you are looking for action, as most of it is done between 4 walls of the committee room.

Casting is Kelsey Grammar, Julia Stiles and Janeane Garofalo and for me the casting could have been better.

Very moving ... photos at beginning and end of real transplant teams and patients with some very moving music throughout.

Best wishes to David Bennett who was the recipient of said pigs heart. He was not deemed acceptable normally as he was guilty in past of stabbing a man. Since the surgery is still in the testing stage he accepted the surgery knowing he may not live long without it.

As "The God Committee" (2021 release; 98 min.) opens, we see a young man on a bike get his by a car in a hit-and-run. We then go to "November 6, 2014, New York City", where we get to know Dr. Boxer, a well-known heart surgeon, and Dr. Taylor, his lover and also a heart surgeon at the same hospital. Dr. Taylor has just gotten named to the heart committee, which decides which patients get a heart transplant. We then go the "7 Years Later, Dec. 20", as Dr. Boxer is making a presentation to investors about cross-species organ transplants... At this point we are less than 15 min. Into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the second feature length from producer-writer-director Austin Stark ("The Runner"). Here he takes a look at the drama that plays out in hospitals all over the country all over this country, namely how organs are allocated (to whom and in which order) to those in need of a transplant. Let's just say that there are a lot of ethical considerations that make is quite easy to write into a medical drama like this one. At times, the movie is intriguing but all to often the movie is uneven, and the script not strong enough. The saving grace comes by way of the two lead performers, namely Kelsey Grammer (as Dr. Boxer< and he also executive-produces), and Julia Stiles (as Dr. Taylor; it blows the mind that in the meantime she has turned 40). There is a nice instrumental score, courtesy of the Newton Brothers (who also score Stark's previous film "The Runner").

"The God Committee" was film in 2019 and was supposed to premier at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, but then a little thing called COVID-19 had different ideas. The movie finally premiered at the recent 2021 Tribeca Film Festival and premiered in select US theaters this weekend. The Sunday matinee screening where I saw this at my local arthouse theater here in Cincinnati was attended so-so: exactly 10 people, and heavily tilting towards seniors (not that there is anything wrong with that). If you have any interest in a medical ethics drama, or simply are a fan of Kelsey Grammer or Julia Stiles, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater, on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

I really enjoyed this movie. Kelsey Grammer did a great job. This movie left us with a lot of "what would you do in that scenario?" questions.

7/10 - genuinely interesting dive into the ethics and forces at play in the hospital that is only slightly derailed by a secondary plot that is pretty unnecessary for the most part.