The Good Doctor

The Good Doctor is about a lonely young medical resident who has high aspirations to be a well-respected good doctor, but he has hurdles to clear before obtaining such status. The intention of the film is to be a dark psychological thriller but there were too many missteps for it to be an effective one. The Good Doctor contains all the right pieces for a puzzle but fails to connect the pieces to complete one.

Dr. Martin Blake (Orlando Bloom) recently moved into his beach-side condo in Southern California, which is minimalistically furnished, similar to the sterile hospital environment he works in. He is just six days into his residency and already he has started off on the wrong foot by mistakenly giving a Spanish-speaking patient penicillin when he is allergic to it. Having an incident like that does not look good on his record considering he is trying to stand out from his peers to win an infectious disease fellowship.

One of his other patients is a young attractive woman named Diane Nixon (Riley Keough), who cultivates an instant crush on him. He explains to her that her kidney infection is not serious thus making her hospital stay short lived. In order to show gratitude for the quick recovery, the Nixon family invites the doctor over for dinner. Because he began to develop romantic feelings for Diane, he knows the ethical implications of pursuing this means he is treading on thin ice. Despite all of this, he will do whatever it takes to ensure seeing Diane again.

This is when the train begins to derail from the tracks as the potentially fascinating story begins to show its flaws. When he shows up to the dinner, the whole family is there except for Diane. That should have raised more flags than it did, but instead it is more or less shrugged off by everyone involved. Because situations are too conveniently set up and largely implausible, the film results in a lot of eye-rolling.

The largest offender of the film is the writing itself; specifically lacking direction of the lead character. At first he seems really determined to further his career by being the best doctor that he can. Then the character is suddenly content with jeopardizing everything in order to stay closer to this girl. His motives were never fully realized or explored.

Most of the flaws in The Good Doctor can be linked to the poorly written script but Orlando Bloom’s performance did not enhance the film at all. Typically, Bloom is a decent actor but in this film he does not look like the veteran that he is. Because there was no conviction from the character, the audience is not able to believe in any decision he made. Which is funny because someone tells him, “You know what the secret is to being a good doctor, don’t you? You act like one”, too bad he did not follow that advice.

The Good Doctor starts off with an interesting concept but quickly suffers from lack of direction and implausible circumstances. There is no better way to describe the last act other than atrocious. Acting performances and the story get noticeably worse, making the flawed film even more problematic. Instead of deciding on one ending, the film opts to show two distinct outcomes; although neither one of them are satisfying.