Hippocrates: Diary of a French Doctor

This French drama about a young doctor at his first hospital internship plays like an American TV medical drama by way of a French realist drama. Vincent Lacoste is Benjamin, son of the hospital's veteran head of surgery, who begins his rotation in the internal medicine department by getting his scrubs and a tour of his new home for the next six months. He's soon joined by Abdel (Reda Kateb), an experienced doctor from Algiers who is forced to go through the same internship before he can practice medicine in France. After a tense beginning they become friends as well as colleagues, but that relationship becomes complicated when a patient under Benjamin’s care dies and his father helps cover up a mistake that could leave him (and the hospital) liable. Along with the big dramatic moments (Abdel defies hospital orders to ease the suffering of an elderly patient), the film observes the mundane day-to-day activities and matter-of-fact doctor's routine with a handheld camera, lending some scenes a documentary realism. This is a film that, between dramatic beats, follows the trail of hospital trash disposal because it is part of what keeps a hospital running. There are also periodic criticisms of hospital management and policy practices, and a scene of overworked staff voicing their grievances about cost-cutting, downsizing, and failing equipment, while also rallying to support a doctor unfairly fired by the administration. Given all that, it's frustrating that this well-intentioned medical drama is so dramatically unmemorable. Optional. (S. Axmaker)