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At Memorial Hospital no one ever dies... Until their insurance runs out.
Werner Ernst is a young hospital resident who becomes embroiled in a legal battle between two half-sisters who are fighting over the care of their comatose father. But are they really fighting over their father's care, or over his $10 million estate? Meanwhile, Werner must contend with his nutty supervisor, who insists that he only care for patients with full insurance. Can Werner sidestep the hospital's legal team and do what's best for the patient?
Sterben und erben, En estado crítico, O Impaciente, Se mi amate, Интенсивная терапия, טיפול נמרץ, 医院人生, En estat crític, Teholla, Özel İlgi, Інтенсивна терапія
Kind of a very disappointing film considering the enormous talent involved. I mean, you've got Rick Baker doing special make-up effects, you've got a fantastic ensemble that includes names like James Spader, Albert Brooks, Margo Martindale, Jeffrey Wright, Anne Bancroft, and DAME HELEN MIRREN! And with Sidney Lumet at the helm. The cinematography is done by Oscar winner David Watkin. Despite this, the entire film looks and feels like the dullest episode of a cheap medical-centric sitcom like Scrubs, that somehow managed to get a big budget and a very "prestige" cast. Except that the humour and look of Scrubs is far more superior. Don't get me wrong: everyone here gives their…
Unfortunately this is seriously tin-eared, even while I completely agree with its takes on for-profit medicine, right-to-die concerns, and medical bureaucracy. But I feel like this isn't a place for the mix of farce, occasional surreality, and blistering sincerity that Lumet's been chasing to one degree or another since NETWORK (he tried it with POWER too, and that also didn't quite work). Another problem: Spader and Sedgwick are wildly miscast, directed arch amongst a murderer's row of supporting performers hitting cleanup and mostly playing straight (Albert Brooks disguised as Walter Matthau I don't know how I feel about). I would have preferred the movie about Helen Mirren's crisis of care with Jeffrey Wright's dying-in-agony patient. Not expressly terrible but so little of it works.
Sometimes you just need a good director to give you the goods. By some metric no, this movie isn't super ambitious or hard-hitting and doesn't end in despair like so many Lumet classics. It starts out as a leisurely day in the life of Dr. James Spader, doing his rounds in the Critical Care Unit at his hospital, bantering with nurse Helen Mirren, hoping for selection into a prestigious program with veteran doc Philip Bosco, wondering about the coma patient in room 5 and his flirtatious daughter Kyra Segdwick, trying to stay cool during visits to aging addle-brained hospital administrator Albert Brooks. A story slowly materializes around the ethics and legalities of taking the coma patient off life support, which…
Sidney Lumet’s “Critical Care” is a great film about “end of life” care and how important it is to have a living will and a last will and testament. This film exposed the underbelly of the contemporary medical system in the form of hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies. Moreover, it demonstrated how doctor’s can get caught in the crossfire of legal battles brought about by the patient’s relatives. Furthermore, it showed how greed motivated the entire capitalistic medical system.
I watched the film for James Spader and Helen Mirren. I stayed because the thesis is pertinent and this film is comical and informative.
Dr. Werner Ernst, a second year resident intensivist has a voice that is so deliciously low and growly when he’s being seductive. The close ups of his perplexed face and big, beautiful ambiguously colored eyes are stunning.
Oh wait, the movie! The movie is better than some say. I think the commentary on the healthcare system is timely, although they get some things wrong. For example, Dr. Butz would be violating EMTALA when denying care to an ER patient due to lack of insurance coverage. Jeffrey Wright’s character Rafael, despite his serious condition, still appeared to have enough decision-making capacity to convey his wishes about being able to die. Although his parents were his DPOAs, I…
Sidney Lumet was a great director for many reasons, but his greatest strength at play here in Critical Care is how he clearly understands, appreciates, and fully utilizes the power of James Spader’s big strange bewildering blue eyes, staring hauntingly into space. It doesn’t hurt that Spader’s Dr. Werner Ernst is a chronically sleep-deprived medical resident, looking wilder and more exhausted than ever. What is cinema about, after all, if not looking at a beautiful, odd, exasperated man on the brink?
Critical Care has its problems—the official poster for one, which I can’t stand to look at so I threw together this alternate one—but I’ve got a soft spot for it nonetheless. An underrated Lumet picture, funny and sometimes depressingly…
If you didn't know beforehand who directed this, you'd probably have no idea that it was from Sidney Lumet. "Critical Care" isn't an awful film by any means but it's a bit of a mess. It feels like 3 different movies in 1 and I found the subplot involving Jeffery Wright and Helen Miren to be a lot more interesting than the main story. The performances are all good here, James Spader makes for a strong lead & Albert Brooks is hysterical in his small role, and it's got some really interesting ideas but it never quite comes together unfortunately.
