20140309: Thriller Review--Pathology

Pathology

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2008, rated R, 94 minutes, thriller.  Aspect, 2.35
2. IMDB: 6.0/10.0 from 22,399 audience ratings.  Estimated budget: 8 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 43% on the meter; 40% liked it from 49,178 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.3/5.0 from 160,875 audience ratings. 
5. Directed by: Marc Scholermann.
6. Starring:  Milo Ventimiglia as Ted Grey, Michael Weston as Jake Gallo, Alyssa Milano as Gwen Williamson, Lauren Lee Smith as Juliet Bath, John de Lancie as Dr. Quentin Morris, Johnny Whitworth as Griffin Cavenaugh.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Ted Grey arrives at University Hospital in Philadelphia as an intern.


2. This piece of drudgery starts with hand-held footage of entitled idiots re-enacting the fake orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally.  The stars of the re-make are cadavers.  Funny?  No.  Indicative of character?  Perhaps.


3. At an early group evening at a watering hole, the group starts talking about killing people.  Which people would one be willing to kill? They are especially interested in Ted's answer.  Soon thereafter, Jake takes Ted to the sickest depiction of a whorehouse that I've seen in a long time.


4. The next day or so, the exemplar cadaver was the bouncer at the whorehouse.  Ted is shocked.  He swallows his extra knowledge, and comes up with a correct diagnosis of how the murder was committed.  He does not figure out that this fellow interns killed the man.  Jake was surprised that he did not figure that part out.  Ted has his suspicions, of course.


5. With very little nudging (OK, some extortion involved), Ted joins the group.  He kills his first.  He participates in the post mortems where the group tries to guess the method of murder.  He does cocaine with his group.  This is still seems abrupt.


6. In any case, Ted's in harness.  How does this group of happy-go-lucky murderers end up?  Will the joy of sex after murder fade?  Do the police get involved?  Are there any responsible, observant adults running the hospital?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Interns repeatedly attempt to commit the perfect murder.
2. Two stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 6/10 Well shot considering the overall darkness of the film, which is too dark.


2. Sound: 5/10 I can usually hear the actors' voices, but sound is not really an asset in this film.


3. Acting: 3/10 Milo Ventimiglia was wretched in Gilmore Girls; I expected nonsense and got a bland who-cares performance in this film.  Based on his track record, I expected nothing good from Michael Weston, and found him more irritating than usual.  Alyssa Milano has the longest record of disappointing performances, but here I saw a short performance that was not bad.  I expect to see at least a few minutes of good delivery and dry wit when John de Lancie is a film; that worked well.  Johnny Whitworth's performance was purely repulsive: an overreaching bully whose challenges are never met.  How did this law-of-the-jungle lout ever get into medical school?  His antics in CSI: Miami were not much better.


4. Screenplay: 4/10 In the first ten minutes of the film, Ted seems to be a bright, hard working, decent lad who deserves to be well-recommended.  His rapid descent into drug use and serial murder conspiracy seemed unfounded.  The autopsy of Gwen by Ted was unlikely; it would seem to me that his doing it would be prevented by protocols.  I suppose it was done for the full frontal female nudity. Also, the extracted heart seemed awfully large for a slim woman in good health.  This film reminded me of Lord of the Flies, only the adults never show up.