I had not seen the star of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy or Pirates of the Caribbean, and he would not be seen in a big role until The Three Musketeers, and of course The Hobbit, I knew this independent film was probably straight to DVD and probably terrible, but I gave it a chance. Basically Dr. Martin E. Blake (Orlando Bloom) is British and has transferred to a Southern California hospital, but being arrogant and egocentric he alienates himself from the nurses, he does not gain endearment from his first patients, and his superiors are not all that happy with him. All he longs for is respect for his peers and one day the power of authority over others, and he feels this when eighteen year old Diane Nixon (Riley Keough), who is suffering a kidney infection, comes in for medical treatment, she and her family see his good medical work as heroic. Her health slowly starts to improve, but Martin longs to remain a hero and consist respect from fellow staff, so selfishly he finds a way to slow down Diane's recovery, changing her medication and botching other treatment, and he maintains the illusion that he is doing everything he can to help her. He eventually lets this botching go too far and accidentally kills Diane, her infection went beyond his control, he is not suspected of any crime by the hospital staff, but it is questionable what some of her family think. But then Martin has another problem when orderly Jimmy (Million Dollar Baby's Michael Peña) reads through Diane's diary, she wrote her sexual fantasies about Martin, of course the doctor-patient personal relationship implication would damage his career, so he blackmails the doctor to give him narcotics. As long as he gets the drugs Jimmy says he will never give back the diary to Martin, so he fills some of the pills he gives him with potassium cyanide which kills Jimmy, and he steals the diary back. Jimmy's death is treated as suspicious and an criminal investigation is started, Detective Krauss (J.K. Simmons) questions him on anything he may know, he is visibly nervous and panicky, so he goes to the bathroom and attempts to flush the diary, but the toilet clogs. With the toilet flooded he climbs out the window and runs to the seaside, he imagines drowning himself in the ocean, but he runs back and after the detective leaves he throws the diary in the garbage, he is not seen to be suspicious, and some time later Martin assures, while carrying out his duties, that he is getting better all the time. Also starring The KTaraji P. Henson as Nurse Theresa, Rob Morrow as Dr. Waylans, Troy Garity as Dan, Molly Price as Mrs. Nixon, Wade Williams as Mr. Nixon, Sorel Carradine as Valerie and Gary Carlos Cervantes as Mr. Sanchez. It is certainly good to see a good looking actor like Bloom playing against type and being the villain, but the story is rather slow, the dark moments aren't paced all that well, and the script is full of cliché and predictability, a silly and hardly worth the effort thriller film. Adequate!
Review of The Good Doctor
