Gray's Anatomy 1996: Movie and film review from Answers.com

Director: Steven Soderbergh
AMG Rating:
Genre: Comedy
Movie Type: Standup Comedy, Performance Art
Themes: Finding the Cure, Obsessive Quests, Doctors and Patients
Main Cast: Spalding Gray
Release Year: 1996
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR

Plot

Writer/actor Spalding Gray is best known for his lengthy and insightful and sharply humorous onstage monologues, two of which, Swimming to Cambodia and Monster in a Box, have been filmed and released theatrically. Gray's Anatomy is also a filmed performance of a monologue he performed in 1993. Whereas the other two films had a focus on satire and humor, this one is a little more serious. Unlike the other two movies, it is less stagey and contains some interesting visuals and even a couple of interviews. The subject is Gray's bout with an eye ailment that caused him to go upon a world-wide journey in order to find a treatment alternative to the surgery he so feared and objected to on religious grounds. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Review

It may not seem like Spalding Gray would require a critically acclaimed director to film a spoken-word monologue, but Steven Soderbergh succeeds in making a visually interesting movie out of Gray's 80-minute account of his degenerative eye disorder. Gray's Anatomy begins promisingly with a series of documentary-style interviews with real-life survivors of eye trauma, then transitions into an engrossing tale of the humor and anguish involved in Gray's attempts to treat his macular pucker, which will eventually lead to blindness. With his New Yawker mannerisms and gesticulations, Gray already makes for attention-grabbing subject matter, but Soderbergh adds atmosphere to the piece with background colors and other visual representations of the film's themes. The tale is absurdly funny, populated by oddball characters trying to appeal to the notorious doctor-phobe, who was born a Christian Scientist. While Gray's shtick is inherently amusing, almost like stand-up comedy, he affectingly takes the viewer to far more serious places in his personal life, and finishes on an unresolved note that's sure to provoke thought. The film manages to be both entertaining and informative, and it should fulfill even those viewers not naturally drawn to Gray's neurotic ranting. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide

Cast

Spalding Gray

Credit

Steven Soderbergh - Director, Susan Littenberg - Editor, Caroline Kaplan - Executive Producer, Kathleen Russo - Executive Producer, Jonathan Sehring - Executive Producer, Cliff Martinez - Songwriter, Adele Plauche - Production Designer, Elliot Davis - Cinematographer, John Hardy - Producer, Cynthia Wigginton - Set Designer, Paul Ledford - Sound/Sound Designer, Spalding Gray - Screenwriter, Renee Shafransky - Screenwriter

Credits

Written and performed by Spalding Gray

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Produced by John Hardy

Based upon the monologue by Spalding Gray and Renee Shafransky

Executive Producers: Jonathan Sehring, Caroline Kaplan, Kathleen Russo

Music by Cliff Martinez

Camera: Elliot Davis

This film is available on DVD and Mini Disc.

Films directed by Steven Soderbergh

1980s

Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)

1990s

Kafka (1991) • King of the Hill (1993) • The Underneath (1995) • Gray's Anatomy (1996) • Schizopolis (1996) • Out of Sight (1998) • The Limey (1999)

2000s

Erin Brockovich (2000) • Traffic (2000) • Ocean's Eleven (2001) • Full Frontal (2002) • Solaris (2002) • Ocean's Twelve (2004) • Bubble (2005) • The Good German (2006) • Ocean's Thirteen (2007) • Che (2008) • The Girlfriend Experience (2009) • The Informant! (2009)

Gray's Anatomy