Main Cast: James Spader, Kyra Sedgwick, Helen Mirren, Margo Martindale, Jeffrey Wright
Release Year: 1997
Country: US
Run Time: 105 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Sidney Lumet filmed this hospital satire at a Canadian studio. Alcoholic Dr. Butz (Albert Brooks in old-age makeup) advises younger Dr. Werner Ernst (James Spader) to only treat patients with much insurance. "When the lawyers start crawling all over you," says Butz, "that's when you know you're a doctor." Ernst, a second-year resident working in the ICU with head nurse Stella (Helen Mirren), winds up in the middle of a dispute between two sisters (Kyra Sedgwick and Margo Martindale). One wants to pull the plug on their wealthy father; the other demands that he remain alive (at a cost of $112,800 a month). Soon events swivel from the money-mad medical mire to equally murky legalistics. Steven Schwartz's screenplay was adapted from the novel by Richard Dooling. Shown at the 1997 Chicago Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Review
For those viewers who haven't seen The Hospital (1971) or Brittania Hospital (1982), this darkly comic satire about people dying in a money-hungry hospital might seem fresh and wickedly funny. Others may find the tale of a doctor (James Spader) caught in the middle of a lawsuit between half-sisters over the fate of their comatose father tasteless or cliched. Whatever the case, there are some amusing wrinkles, including Wallace Shawn as an emissary of the Devil, Helen Mirren as a compassionate nurse driven to mercy-killing, and Albert Brooks as a drunken, forgetful doctor who tries to teach young Spader his cynically greedy philosophy of medicine. Although much of its satire seems trite or blatant, and its irreverence is not for all tastes, Critical Care is quite funny, oddly spiritual, and even somewhat touching. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Dennis Davenport - Art Director, Avy Kaufman - Casting, Dona Granata - Costume Designer, Martin Walters - First Assistant Director, Sidney Lumet - Director, Tom Swartwout - Editor, Don Carmody - Executive Producer, Michael Convertino - Composer (Music Score), Philip Rosenberg - Production Designer, David Watkin - Cinematographer, Sidney Lumet - Producer, Steven Schwartz - Producer, Enrico Campana - Set Designer, Carolyn Cartwright - Set Designer, Gord White - Set Designer, Bruce Carwardine - Sound/Sound Designer, Steven S. Schwartz - Screenwriter, Richard Dooling - Book Author
