Dr. Feelgood

Filmmaker Eve Marson's documentary offers a remarkably evenhanded treatment of the case of Dr. William Hurwitz, the controversial Virginia pain-management doctor who was convicted in 2004 under federal drug-enforcement laws for overprescribing addictive narcotics to his patients. Combining archival footage with interviews of Hurwitz, his wife, former patients (some of whom became government informants, wearing wires during office visits in return for leniency in sentencing), law enforcement officials, and journalists, Dr. Feelgood addresses both the general difficulty faced by physicians in helping those suffering from chronic pain and the specific case of Hurwitz, who is considered by some (including relatives of several patients who died of overdoses) to be a white-coated drug-dealer, although others see Hurwitz as a savior who aided them and then became the victim of overzealous prosecutors. Of course, Hurwitz himself says he was merely trying to relieve the pain of long-suffering people, although some took advantage. At a time when addiction to prescription painkillers like Oxycontin continues to be a national epidemic and proper procedures for managing chronic pain remain much-debated in the medical community, this documentary effectively illustrates that the issues are not as clear-cut as they might seem once the argument moves from the abstract to the personal. Recommended. (F. Swietek)