The Good Doctor

The good doctor is a story about what happens if a doctor, at his own discretion and arbitrariness, begins to interfere in the process of treating a patient. An 18-year-old patient with pyelonephritis, an infectious disease of the kidneys, comes to the novice therapist Martin Blake. And what happens is that our doctor begins to feel completely unprofessional feelings for the patient. In order to keep her in the hospital at least a little, he changes drugs and starts a very risky game with an unpredictable result. The famous Orlando Bloom appears here in a rather rare acting role - a maniac and a sociopath. In the supporting roles, it is beautifully set off by Michael Peña and J. K. Simmons. Together with the competent direction of the Irishman Lance Daley, the result was a wonderful psycho-thriller, very, very competently exploiting the fears of the ordinary man in front of modern medicine. Designed for a purely target audience - people who love smart independent films, where you need to speculate a lot yourself and draw your own conclusions based on what you watched. To all that has been said, it remains only to add that the rating of the film is undeservedly underestimated.

This is the sort of thriller film for people who don't like too much horror and gore. It's a good psychological study but the millennial feel is a little light on and waters down the consequences of the Doctor's increasingly erratic behaviour. The most disturbing thing was watching the Doctor's esteem grow amongst his peers with each new disaster - in other words - the boys protecting the boy's club. Orlando was really good in this role - sort of like 'Dr Who'.

The trailer to this movie made me think it was going to be something else entirely. I admit I was intrigued for the most part but also pretty anxious/uncomfortable due to his poor decisions throughout the whole movie. With an ending like that, I wouldn't say this is the worst movie, but not one that will be remembered either.

Once you read the plot summation or have viewed the trailer you may think they have shown their hand with this but what unfolds is a much larger picture as the viewer is introduced to DR. Martin Blake. He is new at the hospital having just begun his residency there. Lonely, he seems to be an outsider, never having the girl or the attention he wants most. Until he is introduced to a new patient he will be in charge of named Diane. He & the 18 year old Diane seem to quickly forge a bond, a bond that Martin is determined to keep, thus he meddles with her medication & test results, keeping her there with him at the hospital.

Don't let this fool you by any means, this is just the beginning for Martin, his downward spiral has just begun. I must say that Orlando Bloom did a superb job portraying Martin as a fragile loner desperate for more at any cost. Riley Keough, known for her previous role in The Runaways, also did a fine job as Diane. Overall this did a very good job of building suspense & keeping it going through to the end. My only complaint is that I would have liked it to go a bit further with the story, it seemed to wrap up too quickly & an extra fifteen minutes wouldn't have hurt. Still, it exceeded my expectations & recommend to anyone looking for a well acted solidly written suspenseful story. 8/10

Not the usual doctors as heroes film, this one shows some dark sides. A lonely Brit resident is in his first year at an L A hospital. He's not really sure why he became a doctor other than to gain respect. His boss is a distracted lightweight and a senior doctor called in to consult is a fatuous windbag. A patient gets sick and the senior doctors are baffled, the patient gets worse but because all the normal tests are done it is all shrugged off. Then the relative ease doctors can get involved in the drug trade is depicted. The protagonist seems to get over it all and moves along with his career. Could've used some more tension and humour, although the dinner scene with the family from suburban hell was good for a laff.