Coma

"Coma" is one of those movies which for some reason made a powerful impression on me as a kid. Not through its story line, the acting or Geneviève Bujold(I was still too young to appreciate these "aspects" :-) ), but through an overall atmosphere. Such that, upon reviewing 20 years later, certain scenes trigger memories and almost puts me back into that couch as a 7-8 year old. Another of those movies is the weird early science fiction movie by George Lucas of which the title escapes me right now. In "Coma", it was in particular the image of the "Jefferson Institute" building that recalled an evening somewhere in the late '70s. There's probably no movie featuring a more effective and suggestive modern-style horror house. For me, the "Jefferson Institute" complex perfectly impersonates and clenches the feeling that this intelligent thriller is trying to get accross. By its architecture and desertedness, it suggests sterility, impersonality, loneliness and the feeling of an industrial complex. The sterility of a medical system that does well in the technical aspect, but features a growing impersonality that makes it miss its primary goal: to make people feel good. The loneliness of Bujold, who is rather assumed by everyone to be paranoid than to be believed, even by her boyfriend. And the industrial feeling of a healthcare system that doesn't exist to cure people, but to keep itself alive as an industry (=profitable). With the arrival of sophisticated genetic techniques, the medical horror genre is bound to return soon to the big screen. It will be difficult to do a better job than the concisely-titled "Coma"... JoH

Based on Robin Cook's novel, the story goes that Dr. Susan Wheeler (Genevieve Bujold) a resident in the Boston Memorial Hospital suspects something is wrong when too many patients come out in a coma after minor surgery. When nobody takes her seriously she starts an investigation of her own and then realizes she is on dangerous ground for someone is trying to stop her even if she has to die. Michael Crichton takes the most from Cook's book and assembles a most enjoyable thriller with tension all along, intrigue and an impacting ending too. Among the shocking and powerful sequences this movie offers there's the chasing of Wheeler by a hired killer that lasts in the hospital's morgue full with dead bodies hanging from the ceiling in transparent plastic bags in a sort of subrealistic scene; her visit to the mysterious Jefferson Institute where coma patients are held; the "accidental" death by electrocution of a cleaning employee of the hospital that knows to much; and the final discovery by Wheeler of how things are and who is behind them. Genevieve Bujold gives a fine performance as the stubborn Wheeler and Michael Duoglas is alright too as her work partner and lover (not a very demanding role anyway). Rip Torn (the surgery chief) and Elizabeth Ashley as a sinister nurse credit the supporting cast. And there's finally Richard Widmark very convincing as the Medical Center's Director who shows sympathy for Wheeler although he believes she's just a trouble maker that could ruin the Hospital's reputation. A great thriller that constantly improves as the film goes on. You can't miss it if you like real suspense in movies.

A forgotten classic from the late 70s? Yes, I just discovered the picture and enjoyed my 2 hours in company of Geneviève Bujold. The film is set in a Hospital which feels and looks just like the real one, what verisimilitude! There's something strange going on, but is she just imagining it or is there a real conspiracy? There are some stunning examples of locations, the Jefferson institute is amazing, I felt so freaked out by it. Geneviève Bujold gives an excellent performance, really liked her, she had a lot of warmth, really felt for her and she kept her feminity throughout. Michael Douglas is good, but not great. I think the director could've added much more to his character. The direction is pretty suspenseful, very slick and framed very well. The screenplay isn't bad at all, any problems should've been rectified on set. The film was framed at 1.66:1 A nice suspenseful picture, deserves more recognition.

Coma was a really fun film. I liked it to pieces. It opens with a really intriguing shot of a gorgeous Genevieve Bujold driving to her work as a Dr. Wheeler, and listening to the radio on a beautiful crisp Boston morning. A film like this has the audience attention from that grab. Exposition ensues and so does a bit of crazy character development. Then, something else happens, ,a major death takes place and a real intrigue seeks in. Then, the revelation is that a crisis is concerning certain patients. Not for those who are queasy in hospitals. This film, about patients slipping one by one into a coma for no apparent reason still has enough affect to chill every one of it's audience members to the bone! All the stars are at their best with a script that-while has some of its unoticable flaws- keeps the audience in the roots of fear as they root for the lead female. Great Jerry Goldsmith score as well. Great photography and direction from Crighton. a cool film!

I decided to pick up this film originally because it was an early Michael Douglas movie, and Michael Crighton wrote and directed this screenplay. By the cover it had all the elements for a great movie, and the movie brought no disappointment. It was absolutely intriguing and brilliantly filmed. The background of the cold sterile hospital was haunting and perfect. Each actor whether big or small brought a twist to the story. The main character who played Dr. Susan Wheeler was perfect as the stern, and cold Doctor who's best friend goes in for a routine operation and then is rendered into a mysterious brain dead Coma. Dr. Wheeler begins to notice strange "coincidences" around the hospital and starts to investigate other "Coma" cases. What she unravels is a top secret plot that goes right to the very top. The story unravels perfectly and the tension and clues are superb. You can't get a much better 2 hour movie. It's definately a movie that you might be tempted to pass by but it's worth renting. Michael Douglas is even great, although only in it as a supporting character, as Dr. Wheeler's Doctor boyfriend who she tries to convince something terrible is going on within the hospital. You never know who might be involved in this plot and you're waiting for it all to unravel. The only negative aspect of this movie was the ending happens very very quickly, kind of leaves you feeling a little hurried but still an first class movie. Also look for Tom Selleck portraying a patient/dead body. You can't go wrong with this movie. 8/10

This is a real time capsule in many ways, and yet it is a very good thriller that still holds up. A surgical resident in a large Boston hospital, Dr. Susan Wheeler (Genevieve Bujold), becomes suspicious when she investigates why her best friend, a healthy young woman, becomes brain dead after minor surgery. By infiltrating the hospital's computer system she finds all of the people who have become comatose after surgery in the last year, and finds ten who were young and healthy among them. But considering that the hospital does 30000 operations a year, ten patients is statistically insignificant. And yet Wheeler keeps digging. The truth is something that is easy to believe post Watergate, which had ended a presidency just three years before. How is this a time capsule? Well there are the numerous statements about Wheeler being a hysterical woman, even from her significant other, Dr. Mark Bellows (Michael Douglas). Boy does Douglas play this one emotionally timid and meek. He is miles from the role of Gordon Gecko he will play ten years later that will win him the Oscar, but then he said in his early career he tried to avoid playing angry fuming types so he would not be compared to his famous father. Then there are the sexual mores of the 70s. Two employees are having casual sex on the floor when Wheeler visits the hospital lab. ("No Mrs. Baker we cannot explain why there is sperm in your blood sample, can you?"). And the surgery Wheeler's best friend comes in for? It is an abortion, and the surgery is actually shown and discussed in the film like it is no big deal. That would never happen today. It would never have happened in film just five years later in the Reagan years of the 80s. There are other issues, but I will leave it at that. MGM, which was on its death bed at this point, must have not had much faith in the project, because they released it in January 1978, and that is a month when loss leaders generally open.

After watching this film you will be able to recognise all the other films that are based on Robin Cook stories: they are pretty formulaic. The plot starts off slowly, and then gathers pace towards the end, which is just as well, or else we would notice the holes in the plot. Why does Susan Wheeler, a doctor, get hysterical about a refrigerated room full of corpses in body bags? If she and Michael Douglas are both doctors, on doctors' salaries, why are they both living in that cramped, squalid apartment? At the Jefferson Institute, how do both Ashley and Susan Wheeler go into that room fool of suspended bodies without any shades on, when they all had to wear shades during the visit? If Susan Wheeler is at her wits' end, why does Richard Widmark only give her the weekend off? If the janitor knows that they are using carbon monoxide to put patients into comas, why does he tell Susan Wheeler, don't they have police in Boston? How is the janitor killed by a high voltage electricity, wouldn't the cables be insulated for safety reasons? Susan Wheeler finds the electrocuted janitor. Why does she scream if she is a doctor? Why doesn't she do something? If she knows that the janitor was about to tell her something about odd things going on in the hospital, why doesn't she tell this to the police when they come to investigate? When her car fails to start, why does she take the subway, when on her salary, she could afford a cab? When Michael Douglas decides Susan Wheeler is telling the truth and finds a pair of pantyhose at the bottom of the ladder, how does he know they are hers? When Susan Wheeler and her colleague are discussing the skin from cadavers that got under their fingernails, didn't the medical school not issue them with rubber gloves? And, as another commentator asked, what DID happen to that guy who was locked in the freezer with all those cadavers? The film is exciting in places, but the whole thing is just a little far-fetched. Michael Douglas does not have a very good part, but Bujold, Ashley and Widmark make the best of the script. This film is like a dish of rotting meat that is heavily spiced to disguise the bad taste.

As a squirrelly doctor at a Boston hospital who smells a rat when her best friend mysteriously goes into an anesthesia-related coma during a routine operation, Genevieve Bujold proves once again what a dynamic presence she is on the screen. Cool-headed one moment, hysterical and running-in-all-directions the next, she's instantly identifiable to us. As a mystery-thriller that is so filled with continuity errors, gaps in logic and a final act that gives the audience the satisfying release it needs but at the risk of all credibility, "Coma" shouldn't work (and, indeed, many fans of Robin Cook's wordy book didn't think it did). However, as a trashy, one-box-of-popcorn melodrama, the film is very enjoyable and suspenseful. Not the least of the reasons why it's so good is Bujold; handling herself like one of the best crime detectives ever concocted, she is gutsy, feisty, nosy and infectious. You never tire of her spirit. *** from ****

In COMA, petite heroine Genevieve Bujold shows you don't have to be an amazon like Sigourney Weaver or Lucy Lawless to get physical with the bad guys. Set against a hospital backdrop ranking in verisimilitude with that of THE HOSPITAL (the only other accurate medical drama of the 1970's), this is a gripping thriller even on repeat viewing over twenty years later. Bujold's acting has been mentioned by other reviewers, but I would award special accolades to Richard Widmark, whose character's unctuous avuncularity is executed with superb subtlety. Plus, he even comports himself just like a real physician of seniority. I do have a few complaints, not least of which is the gratuitous and grossly inaccurate portrayal of clinical lab personnel and the laboratory environment. Shame on Crichton, who must have missed out on visiting the lab through his entire tenure as a medical student. The laserdisc transfer is technically one of the worst I have in my collection. The monaural soundtrack is overdriven and distorted; the colors are washed out; and careless unmasking of the print (COMA is not letterboxed) results in visible boom mikes in several shots. Still, this is a classic film, and anyone who wants to get up to speed on medical movies wouldn't want to exclude COMA.

I just revisited this movie after 25 years and was surprised how well it held up, even given the rather absurd plot and advances in medical technology in the interim. Genevieve Bujold has forever been underused and underrated, and she is simply superb here. And while I wouldn't tarnish Hitchock's reputation by comparing Coma too closely to any of his work, Crichton does a good job of maintaining suspense. I love the scene where Richard Widmark explains the crazy rationale behind it all, and we see it through Bujold's drug-addled eyes, which somehow makes it more palatable than if we were watching it straight. And I love all the cameos -- Lois Chiles! Tom Selleck! Ed Harris! Many other recognizable faces. Elizabeth Ashley is so over-the-top she's camp. All in all, a fun movie.