Coma
by Michael Crichton
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Elizabeth Ashley, Geneviève Bujold, Michael Douglas, Richard Widmark, Rip TornDirector: Michael Crichton
Brand: DOUGLAS,MICHAEL
Cinematographer: Victor J. Kemper
Writer: Michael Crichton
Editor: David Bretherton
Producer: Martin Erlichman
Writer: Robin Cook
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 113 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-10-26
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Coma
Movie Review: Timeless Classic Thriller
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the most fully realized movie thrillers ever made.
And, seeing COMA for the first time in years on DVD, I was reminded that when we become hostage to warpspeed paced, jump cut, special effects/techno generated movies---and they pervade---we lose site of the real potential of the medium.
That Michael Crichton, a medical school graduate,
wrote and directed COMA...insures the nuts and bolts of the medical world are pristine, and this becomes the foundation for our immediate ability to suspend disbelief and engaging fully.
Genevieve Bujold, her physical cuteness trumped as usual by her gravitas and naturalness, is perfectly cast as the independent, ingenuous but fiercely tenacious surgical resident who suspects and unearths something sinister and pernicious in the large Boston teaching hospital in which she is on staff. Her performance is spot on.
A young Michael Douglas, who, for once, delivers his lines in normal cadence, is also fully present and interactive.
Something I noticed for the first time: evidence that Ms. Boujold was not at all attracted to her co-star, and possibly quite the opposite. In their brief scenes of intimacy she can barely bring herself to even emulate a desire-generated kiss, and she appears almost repulsed.
On the other hand, if the observation is accurate....perhaps her inability to feign in this....should be respected.
Meticulously, brilliantly written and cast, COMA is also directed with such reserve and nuance, even the young Rip Torn is preluded from his propensity for over the top.
Beautifully shot and edited, this is a timeless, flawless film which, like all classics, will never get old and never cease to captivate, impact, and, within its genre, chill.
Summary of Coma
Before he created "ER" Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park, Twister) adapted and directed (his debut behind the camera) this chiller from Robin Cook's best-seller about a sinister medical conspiracy. Genevieve Bujold, Michael Douglas and Richard Widmark star as doctors caught in its web.Something is awry at Boston General Hospital. Dr. Wheeler's (Genevieve Bujold) friend Nancy goes in for a routine procedure, but never comes out of the anesthesia and slips into a coma. Wheeler learns that a tissue sample from the young woman went to the lab, then soon finds out that a high number of patients have become comatose recently. She digs a little deeper and finds a conspiracy mired in hospital politics, running afoul of the head of anesthesia, Dr. George (Rip Torn) and the head of surgery, Dr. Harris (Richard Widmark). Nobody believes the young MD, not even her boyfriend Dr. Bellows (Michael Douglas), but she soon uncovers a black-market trade in body parts, conducted offsite at the Jefferson Institute, a state-of-the-art coma-care facility. As a thriller, Coma certainly has its moments (the scene where a hit man is buried under a pile of frozen-stiff cadavers is an inspired touch), but it's not without its problems. Director Michael Crichton is an MD himself, and the film has a seamless, almost mechanical structure and plotline (taken from the Robin Cook novel). However, the movie's cold, detached feel works against it at times, making the suspense scenes oddly more effective but rendering the emotional content of the characters rather flat. Douglas in particular seems to not put much into his performance; Bujold, on the other hand, is strong and resourceful as the movie's protagonist. More telling, perhaps, is the way that the story shows its age in a time when medical ethics have changed and the phrase "organ harvesting" has made its way into our lexicon. --Jerry Renshaw
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