In the mood for two and a half hours of agonizing torture? I know there are masochists out in the world who have a need to suffer. Here is the perfect solution; a Romanian "dark comedy" in the style of The Hospital from 1971. Both deal with medical mistakes, but the American satire focused on a doctor played by George C. Scott, and this time it is a patient, the unfortunate Mr. Lazarescu, who is the victim of a health care nightmare.
Mr. L. lives in his apartment alone with his cats, when he begins to experience severe stomach pains. He calls for an ambulance, and after a long wait, he asks a neighbor for help. They discover that he drinks a homemade booze that is causing most of his problems. He is taken from one hospital to the next, and by the time he reaches the third one, he is unconscious. A major bus accident causes chaos, filling the emergency rooms with other patients. Meanwhile the doctors are indifferent to Lazarezcu's suffering. There is no happy ending in this marathon of misery, and although it is very realistic, almost looking like a documentary, I needed some of that homemade hooch, by the time it was over.
Mr. L. lives in his apartment alone with his cats, when he begins to experience severe stomach pains. He calls for an ambulance, and after a long wait, he asks a neighbor for help. They discover that he drinks a homemade booze that is causing most of his problems. He is taken from one hospital to the next, and by the time he reaches the third one, he is unconscious. A major bus accident causes chaos, filling the emergency rooms with other patients. Meanwhile the doctors are indifferent to Lazarezcu's suffering. There is no happy ending in this marathon of misery, and although it is very realistic, almost looking like a documentary, I needed some of that homemade hooch, by the time it was over.