Director: Randa Haines
Cast: William Hurt, Christine Lahti, Elizabeth Perkins

Probably like you, I have an official job where I earn enough money to pay my rent, utilities, food, and other expenses. But to tell the truth, I like to think of my hobby of watching movies and writing about them for this web site to be my real job. Believe me, if I could make a living by watching movies and writing about them, I would immediately quit my official job and jump at the chance to devote more time to what I really love to do. There are many reasons why I love my presently unofficial job. One reason is that I know that most people would not be able to do it - I am very lucky to not only have enough knowledge about the world of unknown movies either from memory or with research, I am able to take what I know (or find out) and process it so that it comes out in reviews that people can easily process and be enlightened and entertained. I must admit that this makes me feel very good. But at the same time, I try to remain humble to a certain degree. Although I get compliments for my writing from time to time, I know all too well that I will never win a Pulitzer Prize for it. Also I will freely admit that despite my constant attempts to be accurate, I have made some errors in my reviews now and then. When those errors have happened in the past, I do my best to correct them immediately. And I know for a fact that there are some readers of my reviews that don't like what I have to say. To that last fact, I remind myself that you not only simply can't please everybody, there are some people who just won't accept hearing the hard truth, like the fact that the majority of Canadian movies simply suck and are also not real movies.

Seriously, I try to remain humble with the work I do for this web site. Being too proud could serious erode my readership. I feel lucky that I am able to do so with the job I love, because over the years I have noticed that there are some occupations that have a higher risk of corrupting a person and make him or her come across in a disagreeable manner. One obvious such occupation is being an actor - how many times have we read in the news about an actor behaving in an obnoxious or irresponsible manner? Also, the world of politics through the centuries has seriously warped a number of people to make them drunk with power. Another kind of job that can eventually change a person in a bad way is the medical profession. While I am sure that most doctors are responsible, who hasn't heard true stores of certain doctors acting coldly or being downright irresponsible? The question is where this might come from. Well, I am not an expert observer of the medical field (see, I am humble!), but I have seen a few possible clues over the years. One reason comes from the fact that people who decide to become doctors have to spend the better part of a decade studying and interning before they get their medical license. Few people have the chops for that, so the few that manage to accomplish becoming a doctor might get a big ego - they reason that if they can become a doctor, they could do anything. There is also the fact that once they become doctors, they then deal with a public that is often very dependent on them. Treating patient after patient may make a doctor feel so superior to the people that he or she treats, that the doctor may start to look down on his patients.

I think many of us have had an experience with a doctor lacking compassion and warmth. But to tell the truth, I think more often than not I would rather see a doctor who was like that instead of being extremely jokey and jovial. When something is wrong with me and I go to see a doctor, a serious attitude by my doctor would show that he is taking my situation seriously; a doctor like the one Robin Williams played in the awful biopic Patch Adams would unnerve me. Still, I admit I like to see some compassion when I go to see a doctor. There are certainly some doctors who could put that in their treatments. So you may understand that with its premise of a doctor learning the hard way to be compassionate, the movie The Doctor promised to be very interesting to me. The movie got good notices and a good amount of publicity when it was first released, but became an unknown movie in the years that followed - and that status of course really made the movie look interesting to me. The doctor the title of the movie is referring to is one Dr. Jack MacKee (Hurt, Lost In Space), someone who apparently has it all. He is a successful surgeon in his city's hospital, and has a loving wife named Anne (Lahti, Running On Empty), who's given him a young son named Nicky (Charlie Korsmo, Dick Tracy). This success may have gone to his head, because we see that when it comes to his patients, he more often than not acts in a somewhat cold and uncaring manner towards them when they really desire some compassion. But one day, Jack starts to find out the hard way what many of his patients have faced from him. He all of a sudden starts coughing blood, and an eventual examination reveals that he has throat cancer. What follows for Jack is a long and grueling experience with treatment, and as the weeks follow, he slowly starts to realize that the medical profession could certainly use more compassion towards its patients.

Normally when I review a movie for this web site, I review the movie by looking at several key aspects such as acting, production values, direction, and writing. But for The Doctor, I thought it would be more interesting to judge the movie by looking at how well the movie does its three main acts - the introduction of the character of Dr. MacKee, the long process of Dr. MacKee being treated for his cancer, and what Dr. MacKee is like after going through treatment. The opening act of the movie, introducing us to MacKee, is pretty well done. One reason for this is that the movie makes the decision to show that MacKee is at first a doctor that you probably wouldn't like to have. Sure, he is shown to be very good at his job, with the opening sequence showing him in the operating room saving a dying man who attempted suicide, despite all odds being against MacKee. But at the same time, he is clearly lacking compassion, with him listening to Frankie Valli while operating, and making jokes while saving his patient. ("They ought to teach a course in suicide techniques," he cracks when learning the victim didn't jump high enough.) His home life is somewhat better, but we see signs that MacKee is taking his homelife for granted to a degree. His wife Anne, though occasionally sharing a lighter moment, seems kind of resigned to living with a man who is kind of a workaholic and doesn't show more love and affection. MacKee's general attitude is best summed up when he tells some interns, "There is a danger in becoming too involved." Clearly along the way, MacKee somehow lost the ability to show enough love and compassion to everyone around him. Although we in the audience may disapprove of this, director Randa Haines (Children Of A Lesser God) manages the delicate task of making MacKee's portrayal one where the audience won't hate the man. Of course, we see he could be reformed, but at the same time we see he's not pure evil.

Other interesting directorial techniques that director Haines does includes the restraint of music in the first half of the movie. With hardly any music playing, we get a better feeling of the cold and impersonal environments MacKee is in or has made. It's almost like we are standing just a few feet away. There is more music in the second half of the movie, but composer Michael Convertino (Liberty Stands Still) provides a gentle backdrop when needed, and knows when being quiet is better. As a result, it's much easier to understand what MacKee is feeling when he starts to learn the difficulties of the hospital system when being very ill. Much of the hospital staff don't treat him as special from the other patients. MacKee finds himself in humiliating situations during the treatment processes, and gets very frustrated, finding out soon afterwards that he can't seem to connect with his wife about his predicament. It is then not much of a surprise that MacKee soon makes a connection with a dying tumor patient named June (Perkins, Over Her Dead Body). She knows what MacKee is going through, so it isn't a surprise that MacKee seems blind to the fact he has a wife. However, a short subplot where MacKee and June take a road trip so she can see something on her bucket list all the same feels a little abrupt and out of place for a man who has been a professional for many years of his life. It also feels at times a little "cute" for an otherwise serious movie. Also, when MacKee's wife finds out about the incident and understandably gets upset, there is subsequently no attempt by the screenplay for MacKee and his wife to really discuss what he did and why.

To be fair, there is eventually a sequence where just before MacKee goes to have a big operation, he and his wife do discuss that their relationship is strained and that they seem unable to connect, and it's a pretty good sequence. But I would have preferred every issue they were in conflict with to have been discussed and given enough resolution. The only other real issues that I had with The Doctor was in the last act of the movie, showing MacKee after his recovery. This act is a bit short (only about 15 to 20 minutes in length), and as a result I didn't think that there was quite enough portrayal about how MacKee had changed for the better in both his professional life and in his personal life. But I feel I should point out that all the objections that I pointed out up to this point were minor quibbles; the movie as a whole is very good and definitely worth seeing. For one thing, the movie shows some interesting aspects of the American medical system that I hadn't seen in other movies before, such as the fact that different sections of hospitals have their own "families" that may conflict with other sections. Long term care for sick patients is also atypically shown as being a long and grueling experience, and often can be scary in many different ways. The whole package of the movie is also boosted by some really fine performances. Certainly, Hurt is very good at showing his character to have multi-dimensions that don't make him a clear-cut figure, and make him more intriguing and interesting as a result. But he is supported by fine performances by supporting players as well; there isn't a false note from any actor, big or small part. But I think the best thing about The Doctor is that at the end, viewers will feel compelled to better themselves in whatever relationships they may have, personal or professional.

(Posted November 30, 2022)