A Mistake movie review

MOVIE TITLE: A Mistake

This New Zealand medical drama is now playing in theaters.

RATING: R

LENGTH: 1 hour 41 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: B-

IN A NUTSHELL:

The story is about a gifted surgeon whose life is thrown into disarray when a patient she works on dies. Blame is tossed around and quickly centers on her.

The film was directed by Christine Jeffs, who also co-produced it and co-wrote it. The movie is not based on a true story, but on a novel written by Carl Shuker.

This movie piqued my interest because I used to teach at a nursing college.

THINGS I LIKED:

I like Elizabeth Banks in a lot of her movies, but not all of them. It’s a little bit hit or miss for me. Over the years, she has been involved in a variety of genres, including comedy, horror, and drama.
I hadn’t seen Simon McBurney in anything recently, so I enjoyed his performance.
All of the cast members did a good job, including Mickey Sumner, Fern Sutherland, Joel Tobeck, and Richard Crouchley.
The film does a great job exploring all sides of these medical issues. For example, all patients would want transparency in surgeon performance, but wouldn’t be happy with the natural consequence of that, which would be many surgeons would leave the industry or move to another state or country where their records are readily available for public consumption.
There’s an interesting element of the film that shows the surgeon cutting through a wall in her house. She doesn’t like what she finds, which is somewhat of a parallel to opening up the pandora’s box of medical ethics.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

Elizabeth Banks’ accent was terrible and super distracting. I wonder why she was cast in this role. Star power, I guess. What’s weird is that quite a few others in the cast didn’t have the classic Kiwi accent either.
The story is definitely depressing and heartbreaking.
The very last screenshots went on way too long.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

We see a lot of bloody body parts during a surgery.
A lesbian couple is featured.
Some profanity, including F-bombs. Elizabeth Banks’ character writes an F-bomb on a whiteboard for all to see.
Kids will be extremely bored.
We see a woman wearing a T-shirt and only her underwear.
We see a dog being put to sleep after an accident.

THEMES:

Medical ethics
Bureaucracy and hospital administration
Taking responsibility
Guilt
Blame
Transparency in business
Consequences of our actions
Forgiveness
Acceptance

FUNNY LINES:

None. This is a serious drama.

INTERESTING LINES:

“The decisions we have to make in theater in fractions of seconds are boiled down to they lived or they died. No context. No case histories. Just they lived or they died. That’s not transparency. It’s looking for someone to blame.” – Liz Taylor (Elizabeth Banks)
“We must hold ourselves to a higher standard.” – Bio Ethicist (Niwa Whatuira) “I have a standard: it’s the Hippocratic oath.” – Liz Taylor (Elizabeth Banks)
“You’re the best at what you do, but is what you do the best for your patients?” – Bio Ethicist (Niwa Whatuira)
“I’m not sure women are suited to a career in medicine, particularly unmarried women.” – Richard (Simon McBurney)
“We have a covenant with our patients: I will save you with my skills. We have a covenant with our patients, but we have a covenant with each other too.” – Liz Taylor (Elizabeth Banks)
“I allowed doubt to creep in.” – Liz Taylor (Elizabeth Banks)