Breaking of a Hard Heart

 THE DOCTOR (1991)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Originally viewed in 1991

William Hurt makes every movie he's in intrinsically watchable. No matter the range of subjects or characters he's played, next to "The Accidental Tourist," the sarcastic doctor who shuns emotion to his patients in "The Doctor" is a tour-de-force. Hurt stands out because he underplays so beautifully that every variation of his doctor character coming to grips with his profession truly makes its mark.

Dr. Jack McKee (Hurt) is a brain and lung surgeon who sings along to Jimmy Buffett songs while doing open-heart surgery. The doctor is hardly stoic - he is lively in his manner, encouraging everyone to sing especially one of the reluctant nurses. Jack is married to Anne (Christine Lahti, also nicely underplaying) and they have a son who never sees much of his father. Jack is forgetful of his son's PTA meetings and Anne tries her best to be understanding - their love is genuine with the only real crisis being the renovation of a kitchen that Jack desires. Jack and Anne can laugh together yet Jack is resists engaging in honest talk without cracking a joke. The same is true of his several patients, one of whom is concerned over surgical scars and all he can say is, "Tell your husband you look like a Playboy centerfold, and you have the staples to prove it." He is not callous exactly, he just has to feign callousness through sharp-tongued humor that is not always appreciated.

But then sickness enters McKee's life when a malignant tumor is found in his throat. An ENT specialist (Wendy Crewson), Dr. Abbott (who shows complete indifference), diagnoses him and McKee starts to notice what he never noticed before. He is now a patient in his own hospital and is seeing how doctors are not always present, paperwork is not always ready to be filled out, there is some red tape around test results, and so on. Doctors don't show much emotion to him despite being a surgeon in his own hospital - his job status doesn't entitle to him to any privileges including not using a wheelchair which every other patient must use. 

Jack also sees how his tumor can cause changes in his own life, including seeing how others suffer. He has kept his eyes and his emotions shut off for too long, using humor as his tonic. June (a dazzling Elizabeth Perkins) has a brain tumor and is put off by Jack's consistent arguing with the hospital staff. Eventually Jack clings to June since they both don't know when is their potential expiration date. June's prognosis is more severe and Jack connects with her - her anger where it almost lead to her jumping off a roof when discovering she had cancer until she saw a pigeon strangely looking at her is quite the revelation. 

Superlatively directed with care and sensitivity by Randa Haines ("Children of a Lesser God"), "The Doctor" also shows Jack's seemingly rocky marriage to Anne and he hides when he could talk to her, or he hides through angry tirades and cracking jokes (the latter is true with his patients). When his tumor is removed and part of his vocal chords, there is a tremendously overpowering scene where Jack sees only love around him, indulging in it, and embraces Anne who is in tears and is reminded of his tenderness. The moment reminds Jack of the glorious dance he had with June in the desert. This is one of those glorious sentimental films where every emotion is earned and felt through your body. It further establishes William Hurt as one of the premier actors of this or any generation.

Quiet regret in William Hurt's finest hour

 THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST (1988)

An Appreciation by Jerry Saravia

The stiff-lipped and emotionally withdrawn Macon Leary (William Hurt) writes travel guide books. He is known as the Accidental Tourist and writes about how to travel to other places without ever feeling homesick, specifically for the traveling businessman. Macon writes with organizing skill about all the do's and don'ts of travel such as taking a carry-on bag, small envelopes of laundry detergent, where to find American food in foreign countries, etc. He is detailed and organized, stating in his books the decent hotel plumbing in some European cities. Other than scoffing at the idea of bringing private mementos that could be lost in a trip, you wouldn't suspect that Macon is a hurting, despondent man who lost his young son years ago and has an unhappy home with his wife who is seeking a divorce.

"The Accidental Tourist" almost reads like an adaptation of a Russell Banks novel though it is not as despairing. Anne Tyler's very masterfully delicate and emotional novel is beautifully adapted by writer-director Lawrence Kasdan and neither handles this material as simply a family tragedy. The depressing notion of losing a child in a senseless act of violence is not treated as an afterthought but as a prism for this married couple who have been unable to cope with each other. Kathleen Turner as Sarah Leary, Macon's soon-to-be-divorced wife, has been unable to live another day without feeling morose. Macon has been suffering yet it is suffering in muted fashion - he keeps going on but has not provided comfort for his wife during this agonizing ordeal. When Sarah reveals she is leaving him, his feelings slowly come to the surface though he still keeps them confined through his own anger at her. Quick moments of harshness and anger inform Macon - he is not an easy man to love or to hate. Macon has the self-knowledge of his loneliness and misery yet he wishes not to articulate his feelings.

What is deeply trenchant about the film are not just the complex emotions but also the humorous touches. Macon lives in good old Baltimore and stays with his siblings briefly after breaking his leg (Sarah can't take care of him since she lives in an apartment, so it is up to Macon's matronly sister, Rose). The Learys are just as organized in their habits as Macon is. Sincere Rose (Amy Wright) places food items in the cabinet in alphabetical order. The two brothers, Porter and Charles (the perfectly cast Daniel Ogden Stiers and Ed Begley, Jr.), are orderly to some degree and play card games every night after supper. I love that Kasdan spends a little time with these brothers and the spirited sister, to show that Macon's indifference to emotions comes from somewhere. There is relentless telephone ringing in their house which they never answer, even if Porter might be calling since he gets lost frequenting to the hardware store. 

Just as beguiling is the introduction of Muriel Pritchett (a gloriously kooky and sympathetic performance by Geena Davis) who works at an animal hospital and knows how to make dogs obey commands. Since Macon's dog, a corgi, has recently bit him, he takes up Muriel's offer to train the dog. This, of course, develops into a romance but not immediately. Macon turns down Muriel's dinner invite and, in a very powerful scene, tells her about the loss of his son and his inability to move past it. William Hurt conveys everything about Macon's inability to socialize, to have friends, resisting intimacy, etc. It is a performance showing such quiet regret that it is easily my favorite Hurt performance.

"The Accidental Tourist" always stayed with me and felt genuine with its bottled emotions from the Learys, and Davis's Oscar winning performance as a woman who wishes to help others. She is the real article, a woman who knows who she is and what she wants. Macon eventually comes out of his shell. It is a revelation in every way and, yes, a superbly revealing film that is very closely connected with the Anne Tyler novel (a smooth, mesmerizing read for book lovers). "The Accidental Tourist" is something I needed to unknowingly revisit now in my fifties and I am glad I did.  

Nailing the zeitgeist and throwing in a body count

 EDDINGTON (2025)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Eddington" is a small-scale Western-of-sorts, a mere microcosm of the early days of COVID-19 when everyone wore surgical masks, stayed indoors and decided that working from home was the new normal. My memory of it was the value of convenience, that shutting yourself from the world and viewing it from the prism of Zoom virtual meetings and obsessing over social media was a new way of living. In a sense, we still practice that insularity - when we leave our homes, our smartphones and iPhones have become our plastic bubbles and we don't leave home without them. We have Doordashed ourselves out of existence, to some extent. "Eddington" is about the fears and anxieties of the new normal yet it also cultivates how our 24-hour news cycle is extended from our phones and that rational thought has gone out the window. That makes "Eddington" worthwhile even when it shifts gears into hyper-violent overdrive. 

The movie begins with a close-up of a homeless man's feet as he walks through the barren lands of lovely New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment. As he is walking and pontificating incoherently, we see the small desert town of Eddington is being used for an upcoming A.I. data center. It is nighttime as Sheriff Joe Ross (Joaquin Phoenix, beautifully understated) is out on patrol and doesn't realize or concede that there is a geographical division between the pueblo and the town limits of Eddington. The Sheriff is berated by the pueblo cops for not wearing a mask. The fictional Eddington is like any other small town in New Mexico until nationwide news hits of the murder of George Floyd. Protests start with young white people becoming progressively ashamed of being white, of having privilege and for stealing the land from the Native Americans. All this becomes manufactured hate against whites, parroting what other protesters are doing around the country in what became known as the Black Lives Matter movement. The problem is that Sheriff Ross can only handle so much protesting since he only has two other deputies.

Meanwhile, Ross hates the mayor (Pedro Pascal) and plans to run against him! Ross also hates wearing masks and hates the government for the new laws of protecting oneself amidst a growing crisis. There are domestic issues with Ross's mentally unbalanced wife, Louise (a nearly unrecognizable Emma Stone), who has a developing interest in a cult lead by Vernon Jefferson Peak (Austin Butler, who resembles Jim Morrison). Louise's mother, a conspiracy nut job (Deirdre O'Connell), lives with the miserable married couple. Happiness is not central to anyone's existence in this town.     

"Eddington's" focus from COVID mania and individual rights and freedoms switches to almost blood-curling terror with increasing tension filling every frame. A political murder has taken place and determining the assassin(s) identity infects a town embroiled in an increasing body count. Tension is writer-director's Ari Aster's forte and despite the mortality rate stemming from characters you least expect to get offed, "Eddington" abandons political machinations for bloody killings and executions. The various themes of humanity pushed to the edge when it comes to how tragedy is perceived and dealt with rather than analyzed with a fine tooth comb gives the film a real lift and attentively channels the zeitgeist. When the killing starts, it all feels slightly uneven and off-kilter. One, two murders might have been sufficient rather than the last half-hour devoted to eruptive sniper fire and one crucially timed explosion.

"Eddington" starts as small-town chaos that boils to high temperatures. As a COVID suspense western thriller, the film technically works and makes you sweat. At 2 1/2 hours, I have to give it credit for pushing all the heated political buttons but I still could have done with less gunfire.