The Doctor

A truly solid cast delivers a moving drama filled with humor and emotion. This could be the single best exploration of the theme of "empathy" ever filmed.

This film should be required viewing for any training or development on health care, communication, leadership, and service. Watch this the same week you watch "Patch Adams" and you'll be a better person emotionally for it.

San Francisco surgeon Jack McKee (William Hurt) has been a jerk his whole life. He never refers to his patients by their names and apparently never knows why they're in the hospital. In short, Jack's the opposite of Patch Adams. But then, he becomes a patient, and finds out what it's really like to be on the other side. Admittedly, this is sort of a cliché (and maybe sappy at times). But still, it's a good look at one man's change.

I will say that what Jack does at the end looked a little unrealistic; I doubt that he went that far in real life. But even so, I still say that the movie is worth seeing. Not a masterpiece by any stretch, but important. Also starring Christine Lahti, Charlie Korsmo, Mandy Patinkin and Adam Arkin.

It's not unusual in Hollywood for 2 studios to be working on similar projects at the same time. One obvious example might be Milos Forman's beautiful Valmont, and Stephen Frear's certainly adequate Dangerous Liaisons. The latter featured a ‘bigger' cast by American standards, and did better business, not surprisingly.

About the same time as Randa Haines' beautiful, ‘The Doctor', with William Hurt was delivered, so was Mike Nichols ‘Regarding Henry', starring Harrison Ford. Again, the latter did bigger business, and as a result I feel this film was largely overlooked.

On first look, The Doctor seems a standard tale: icy, successful surgeon finds out what medicine is really like when the tables are turned and he is diagnosed with throat cancer. His redemptive arc is somewhat predictable, as he reconnects with family, redefines his medical practice, and restructures his relationship with his similarly icy partners.

But it's under these, predictable circumstances that a true craftsman like Ms. Haines can make the ordinary extraordinary. The film is genuinely heartfelt and touching, resisting at every turn any self-indulgence, or the gratuitous pulling at heartstrings, relying on a quiet, confidence, a softer emotion instead.

Not that it's not weepy at times.

Hurt has never been better in the title role. Elizabeth Perkins as his soul-mate cancer victim is equally superb.

One of the major problems with American-made films is they overlook the touching effectiveness of simplistic and credible story telling combined with well-toned, subtle and even performances. Films such as Rain man and Erin Brockovich are good examples of where these attributes are ditched in favour of over-dramatic, occasionally over-melancholic and (often) unrealistic subplots. This, in turn, usually results in forced, uneven and rather unmoving performances.

American film makers need to review films such as Paris, Texas and The Browning Version to see how powerful, touching and engaging real-life drama is presented most effectively when the script-writers and director chooses simplicity and subtlety, without 'flair' and forced drama (ie... they need to look to Europe to see how it's done!)

The Doctor is certainly a large step in the right direction. The tone is subtle and the acting is fantastic because it is even across the cast. There is nothing unrealistic or fancy about the story and we don't have doctors running round the "ER" yelling and screaming and "manufacturing" drama. The Doctor is simple, yet brilliant.

I find it irrelevant that the story is overtly predictable. I'll never know why Hollywood finds it necessary to throw in the "dramatic twist" into every film? The majority of the time, the "twist" is usually predictable anyway, creates little by way of dramatic effect and is often childish and stupid (case in point "High Crimes"). Telling the story is the secret to drama, not artificially manufacturing one!

Perkins was terrific in the Doctor, but it was surprising to see that she had few notable roles after this film.

The premise seemed a little too straightforward at first glance: Doctor becomes patient. But it is so well executed, you can't help but be drawn in. I kept suspecting it was going to turn sappy at any moment, but director Randa Haines does not hold back on the emotional awkwardness that comes from difficult situations. There is much less sentimentality than Haines' best-known film, Children of a Lesser God. And although Hurt is far less "charming" in this film than he was in that one, he actually is more watchable. The more difficult he becomes, the more interesting the film gets.

Another intriguing aspect of the film is the feelings Chritine Lahti's character experiences, from sympathy to anger, to jealousy, to feeling shut out, you name it. In fact, the film could have delved even deeper into their marital discord and it would not have lost me. For some this film may go down a little too easily, but I think the accessibility of the subject matter in this case is an asset.