6 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.8 |
Dr. Martin Blake, who has spent his life looking for respect, meets an 18-year-old patient named Diane, suffering from a kidney infection, and gets a much-needed boost of self-esteem. However, when her health starts improving, Martin fears losing her, so he begins tampering with her treatment, keeping Diane sick and in the hospital right next to him.
Starring: Orlando Bloom, Riley Keough, Rob Morrow, Troy Garity, J.K. SimmonsDrama | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Orlando Bloom has made a career—one that seems to be withering of late—out of playing bland good guys and semi-heroes. The flaxen-haired, bow-
toting Legolas in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Pirates of the Caribbean's mild-mannered blacksmith, Will Turner. A crusading cipher—
also a blacksmith—in Kingdom of Heaven. The Kirstin Dunst-besotted shoe designer in Cameron Crowe's dippy Elizabethtown. He's
never terrible in these roles—well, besides his un-buyable American accent in that last one—but he does have a tendency to be slightly
boring. Too nice. Too noble. Too fangless.
In his latest film, The Good Doctor, he switches it up a bit and plays a bland bad guy. I don't necessary mean that pejoratively. Here,
the surface-level milquetoast-ness is essential to his character, an internal medicine intern who appears concerned and well-intentioned, but wants to
be a doctor for all the wrong reasons. Throughout the course of the film—a sort of dreary hospital thriller about obsession and respect—he breaks
nearly every tenet of the Hippocratic Oath, endangering lives and lying to keep his unethical behavior under wraps.
A low-budget indie production, The Good Doctor was shot on 16mm, so the resultant 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is inherently softer and grainier than a 35mm film. This is an interesting choice; faced with similar limitations, many other filmmakers would chose to go digital, which would seem appropriate for the sterile hospital setting. Shooting on film keeps the movie from being too clean and clinical, though, adding a layer of grain that keeps the image warm and active-looking, for the lack of a better phrase. It works, and it's nicely reproduced here, with no noticeable DNR or edge enhancement. If there are any compression-related artifacts here, it's hard to discern them from the naturally thick analog noise that covers each frame. Clarity takes a hit anytime you're dealing with 16mm—which has effectively half the resolution of 35mm—but the picture looks as resolved as it probably can be, and from a normal viewing distance, the softness isn't overly apparent. The film's color palette is decidedly drab—all white and gray walls, muted hues, and drained skin tones—but contrast is good and everything looks as intended.
The Good Doctor arrives on Bluray with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track that's low-key but perfectly functional. This is a quiet psychological thriller, so the focus is on the dialogue, which is always cleanly recorded, balanced in the mix, and easily understood. Everything else is just atmosphere. The rear channels probably aren't used as often as they could've been, but you will hear some ambience when called for—hospital hallway chatter, lapping waves, etc.—and a few rare directional effects. The surrounds are better used to expand the emotive score by I Mother Earth vocalist and sometime tattoo artist Brian Bryne. The music stays mostly restrained, aside from two particularly dramatic sequences, where it's allowed to soar. The disc includes optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles, which appear in easy-to-read white lettering.
The Good Doctor is a bit like taking your medicine; it's good for you—in that it's thematically rich and psychologically layered—but it isn't very fun, especially for a purported thriller. While the film does have some moments of oh no, oh no, what's gonna happen next intensity, it drags its dramatic heels far too often. Go ahead and give it a shot if you're looking for a low-key character study, although I'd probably go with a rental or streaming option instead of a purchase. I can't see this one getting a lot of repeat viewings, and the disc is short of substantive special features.
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