Threshold, l'expérience finale

I wasn't really looking forward to seeing this film, and only ended up watching it because it stars Donald Sutherland and Jeff Goldblum, two of Hollywood's most talented and inimitable actors.

In the end, though, I glad I did watch it - THRESHOLD turned out to be an engaging and absorbing drama. It's a fictional account of the first ever artificial heart transplant, and feels so realistic that you'd never guess it was made two years before the artificial heart became a reality.

Donald Sutherland's first-rate performance is probably the highlight of the movie - when he's this good, you wonder if there's anyone he couldn't act off the screen. A then unknown Jeff Goldblum holds his own admirably as the idealistic young doctor who invented the artificial heart, and the film features some impressive camerawork, most notably the opening tracking shot.

All in all, it helps if you're a Sutherland fan, but it's not essential; this is one of those movies whose relaxed pace, absorbing atmosphere and strong performances will have you hooked right from the start.

As near as I can tell, this movie is based directly on Dr. Denton Cooley's career. Dr. Cooley WAS the first doctor to use an artificial heart in a patient whose heart was unrepairable on the operating table. He was chastised for doing this at the time without approval and so he started his own hospital, The Texas Heart Institute. This movie closely follows the circumstance of that operation that transpired in the 1960's long before the first APPROVED artificial heart was used in Barney Clark in December of 1982. I remember the time well as I had to wait an extra day for Dr. Cooley to operate on me as he was delayed in getting back to Houston after Mr. Clarks operation. This is one movie based on closely related facts.

I think the most attractive sci-fi movies are those that are closer to truth than fiction. I remember when Jurassic Park came out in 1993 (I see you Jeff Goldblum) it was such a hot topic. In fact, even though I was only a teenager, I don't think I'd ever heard the term DNA before. Jurassic Park popularized the three letter acronym and made us all believe that it may even be possible to revive a long dead species.

Threshold has a similar believability. Doctor Vrain (Donald Sutherland) is the world's preeminent heart surgeon. He has performed such cutting edge heart surgeries they could be considered miracles. But there are conditions he can't even fix.

Dr. Aldo Gehring (Jeff Goldblum) is a biologist that believes he can create an artificial heart. As he put it, man didn't fly by mimicking a bird, they flew by creating a machine different than a bird. So trying to mimic a heart is similarly futile. Dr. Aldo invented a heart with a tiny steam engine that uses just a drop of water that it constantly recycles to drive it. And instead of pumping blood as a normal heart would by contracting and expanding, it uses a vortex action to pump blood throughout the body.

Threshold gives us that perfectly believable blend of science and fiction. It gives us that with the drama of a hospital movie/show that so many of us love. In the end, we all want to see lives saved because it gives us hope. And maybe that's what the true appeal of Threshold is--that it instills hope.

I am not the only viewer who believes that "Threshold," a very low key drama at first viewing, is outstanding film. One online review considered it one of a personal "unknown 'ten best.'" I watch it again and again, completely absorbed by the intense concentration with which Donald Sutherland plays Dr. Thomas Vrain, a highly skilled and dedicated cardiovascular surgeon. Vrain meets, and has his hospital retain the services of, an offbeat biologist, Aldo Gehring (Jeff Goldblum), who is pursing the invention of an artificial heart. Against all advice and straining medical ethics, Dr. Vrain performs a successful transplant of Gehring's artificial heart to save a patient with an otherwise hopeless congenital defect. "Threshold" is a meticulously crafted production with impeccable, nearly mesmerizing performances in the even most minor roles. Sutherland is at his best in this film, creating so realistic a portrait of a brilliant surgeon that one physician reviewer on this site claimed to recognize several surgeons known to him personally, with Sutherland embodying both their strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps the most notable attribute of the fictitious Dr. Vrain is his total, and no doubt indispensable, commitment to and absorption in his skill. One of the film's advisors was Dr. Denton Cooley, a pioneering Dallas Surgeon; under whom Sutherland studied, and seems to have managed to portray with utter fidelity as the leading character. Cooley was the first surgeon to use an artificial heart in a patient with an irreparable heart. He was professionally reprimanded for doing it with¬out approval and so started his own hospital, The Texas Heart Institute. The film very loosely follows this little known event, and it is worth seeing if only for the strength of Sutherland's portrayal, no less than its high production values and the assured performances of the entire cast. This was a Canadian production. For some reason it was never transcribed to DVD in Canada, although versions are available from the Czech Republic, Germany, even Greece. I have a gradually deteriorating VHS tape, which will no doubt wear out in the watching of it. The vagaries of licensing agreements seem to have claimed yet another creative victim.

"Threshold" is a meticulously crafted Canadian drama with several stars in top form. There's Donald Sutherland as the heart doctor who is warm and genial, but still keeps an emotional distance from his daily activities. This is evidenced in the scene where he's talking about the miracles that he's experienced in his life, and he doesn't mention a single one of his life-saving operations. He doesn't see himself as a Superman, just an ordinary man doing his job. He has no ego or God-like persona, he's just a dedicated doctor. He is so phenomenal in this role that I would have to say it's my favorite Donald Sutherland performance, and he's given many great ones. I also thought this was one of Jeff Goldblum's best performances, right up there with "The Fly". In "Threshold", he is totally believable as a 34-year-old man who has dedicated probably every inch of free space in his mind thinking about his exhilirating project for over a decade, possibly all his life. When people scoff at his ideas with vague, juvenile arguments, he begins rambling and rambling about the specific virtues of his experiment so descriptively, passionately, sometimes euphorically that the result is often exciting, like in the incredible scene towards the end between him and the radio personality; he always totally ignores any childish comments and goes straight to the heart of the matter. It's no wonder that when his invention seems to work he is suddenly overcome with grandiosity, because he basically is his project, totally. Few people ever devote this much of their life and minds to one incredible concept like this, and as a result, he becomes carried away.

Mare Winningham is such a priceless jewel in "Threshold" as Sutherland's first artificial heart transplant. She is luminous in every one of her scenes, particularly towards the end. We feel so much sympathy for her character and only want the best for her in the end. She should have been Oscar-nominated along with Sutherland and Goldblum for this. I'll never forget how much I could truly feel her sense of loss and fear after the surgery: "I'm just not the same."

The film obviously raises the issue that many people feel Sutherland and Goldblum are "playing God", and I could be wrong, but that was kind of an impression I got from one scene right after Winningham's surgery when she's still sedated. Sutherland comes to see her and as he's watching her sleep he hears the ominous sound of a helicopter overhead, which we know is the press, but it's almost like a rumble from a God uknown, a private message to Sutherland, at least that's what I imagined his character might be thinking. I'm not sure if it signified an approval of or anger at the operation, but I would guess that in his character's mind it would have been the latter.

The film has a deceptively happy ending. Winningham seems to physically fine in the end, but as she's walking with her parents from the hospital we can see in her eyes that she's lost herself and will probably never be the same. She may in time learn to forget somewhat about her anxieties or put them aside, but it's doubtful. Then of course there's always the possibility she could die the very next day, being that the prosthetic heart is so experimental.

The film has some very beautifully lit scenes, like the first scene that we see Winningham talking to Sutherland on the street at night. It's the almost glowing background lights that make this scene so beautiful, apart from the actors; it has an ethereal feel to it.

I walked away from "Threshold" feeling that I had gained something as a human being from watching it. Not only that, I enjoyed the experience!

My rating: 10/10