Jack McKee is a doctor with it all: he's successful, he's rich, and he has no problems.... until he is diagnosed with throat cancer. Now that he has seen medicine, hospitals, and doctors from a patient's perspective, he realises that there is more to being a doctor than surgery and prescriptions.
(48 votes)
2.
Surgeon Jack MacKee (William Hurt) has long learned to examine his patients not as people but as specimens. In an ironic reversal of professional perspective, the unfeeling doctor learns that he has cancer and realizes the businesslike treatment he has always doled out does nothing to encourage his -- or anyone's -- recovery. While forging a special bond with fellow cancer victim June (Elizabeth Perkins), Jack begins to discover the healing powers of love and compassion.
Based on the autobiographical book A TASTE OF MY OWN MEDICINE by Dr. Ed Rosenbaum, DOCTOR is a plausible film. It captures the shortcomings of a mechanized health care industry. Mandy Patinkin is delivers a charming performance as the MacKee’s rival surgeon, Murray. Director Randa Haines sets a qualitative standard in this hospital melodrama. The cinematography, story, and acting are all flawless.
(47 votes)
3.
William Hurt is perfectly cast as an arrogant surgeon who treats patients like interchangeable cogs in the machinery of his medical practice. Then he is diagnosed with throat cancer and, as the title of the memoir on which it is based tells us, he gets a taste of his own medicine. The subplot involves the solidarity between doctors, which is shattered when the newly conscious physician discovers that one of his partners (Mandy Patinkin) is trying to cover up a case of malpractice. Hurt is solid, as is Wendy Crewson as the doctor who treats him and Elizabeth Perkins as a fellow cancer patient. Interestingly, Hurt's fellow actors Patinkin, Adam Arkin, and Christine Lahti all wound up playing doctors on TV's Chicago Hope. --Marshall Fine
(45 votes)
Mooviees.com is not the official site for this film.
All editorial views and opinions expressed here are for entertainment purposes only.
Movie Database
In Theaters
