Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Movie Review: Pathology



Blogger's note: Minor Spoilers for the movie.

Pathology is one of those movies that should actually be studied and dissected in film class, in the rare hope that someone, somewhere can figure out what it's supposed to be about. I had to watch this movie twice, once for the review, and twice to make sure I didn't take a blow to my head in the middle of the movie and missed some important plot point somewhere.
 
In this film, an intern named Ted is starting off a promising new career path in the medical field. He also has a girlfriend he left behind while he goes off to a speical pathology program. Unfortunately, it soon becomes clear that Ted doesn't fit in with his peers, who in their spare time have a great game where one person kills a random person in a mysterious way, and the rest of the group tries to figure out how they died. It's okay, though, because Ted just goes drinking with them and joins the game after a day or two.

This idea might have worked if Ted was a sleezeball to begin with, but he's really a guy with a promising life and no real motivation to go out killing people. Did I also mention that Ted is played by Milo Ventimiglia (Peter from Heroes)? He's in this movie trying to prove that he can play a bad guy too. And he really gives the same bland performance either way.



I think the other characters are worthy of note, namely Juliette, who portrays someone who is both cunning, beautiful, insane yet vulnerable. Another character, Jake, is the antagonist (I guess-I really can't root for Ted in this film) who plays an adequately insane pyschotic. Also John de Lancie makes an appearance as a professor who desires's Ted's best interests. Maybe a little too much in some scenes.



 If I had to guess, I would say that this film is trying to rip off Fight Club, which is an amazing portrayal of a normal guy descending into a role of madness because society has failed him. Unfortunately, in order for Pathology to pull this off, they would need better actors. And a story that makes sense.

FINAL GRADE: 2 1/2 stars out of 5. It tried. Enough said.

I'm still not sure how Ted thought his girlfriend would be okay with him being a serial killer. Oh well, he cheats on her five scenes later so it's not a major plot point.

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