The Good Doctor

Dr. Martin Blake (Orlando Bloom) turns the essence of the Hippocratic Oath—“First, do no harm…”—into hypocrisy in filmmaker Lance Daly's sinister psychological thriller. Newly arrived in Southern California from England to begin his first year of residency in internal medicine, the ambitious Blake is annoyed when he can barely comprehend a Hispanic patient's medical complaint, ultimately making a mistake with the man's medication. So in order to impress the Chief Resident (Rob Morrow), a colleague (Troy Garity), and the vigilant, no-nonsense floor nurse (Taraji P. Henson), Blake concentrates on flirtatious Diane Nixon (Riley Keough), a pretty, blue-eyed, blond 18-year-old with a kidney infection. When Diane's grateful family invites shy, lonely Blake to their home for dinner, he deliberately tampers with the medication in her medicine cabinet, so that she will relapse and return to the hospital, where her condition worsens. When Blake discovers insolent orderly Jimmy (Michael Peña) having sex in the supply room, Jimmy counters with evidence of Blake's malfeasance, blackmailing him with demands for a prescription painkiller. A seemingly black comedy about the ruthless, amoral obsession of a sociopath, Bloom's reticent, ever-courteous Dr. Blake is so inexplicably cold and elusive that it is hard to sustain interest in him as an evil protagonist. Optional. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a “making-of” featurette (10 min.), an ASX TV behind-the-scenes featurette (5 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is the BD-Live function. Bottom line: a small extras package for an unremarkable film.] (S. Granger)