Hippocrates (2014)

Thanks for the memories!

Just perfect...

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Hiporcrates is a French film that revolves around a young intern, Benjamin and his discovery of life as a doctor, as he begins to recognize negligence and pain in his own surroundings. The relationships among the characters are often tender, but never stop being conscious and logical. With a realistic and low-key dialogue (and very subtle humour), beautifully constructed and believable characters, Hipocrates manages brake with the godly-like portrayal of doctors to make a smart film that acknowledges an often neglected and ignored issue as the medical situation and the treatment of human pain.

I have to say that this film was simpa. Plot is set in a hospital in Paris and shows all the horrors which doctors and patients have to live thru. Acting is very good and main characters show truly how life of a doctor in the hospital in France can be hard and complicated. It also shows well suffering of the patients and what their families have to live thru when mistakes are made by the doctors. If you are a fan of the European cinematography and want to see how life in every day France looks like I recommend that you see this film. Otherwise you will not miss too much by not watching it.

If it's tough being a cowboy in Rochdale it's not that much easier being an intern in a French hospital, a sentiment which pretty much comprises the message of Hippocrate. Vincent Lacoste - and no, he doesn't sport crocodile shoes - is one such intern and we join him on his first day at a hospital where his father, Jacques Gamblin, is head honcho. Gamblin in fact is the only 'name' in the cast and certainly the only name that may be recognisable to audiences outside France so it is ironic that his total screen time amounts to something like twenty minutes every one of which he could have phoned in. Within what appear to be minutes of his arrival Lacoste decides a patient would require an ECG only to be told that the relevant equipment is broken and has been for months. Inevitably the patient dies and Lacoste is encouraged by colleagues not least his own father, to state that an ECG was performed and showed negative and again inevitably this returns to haunt him. He befriends an Algerian intern, a full doctor in his own country, who is also tailor-made for the scapegoat role when one is needed. This, in general, is the tone of a fine if mostly unremarkable film.

I like this movie speaking of the hard daily burden of doctors in a big hospital. A poignant drama with tremendous performances. Reda Kaleb is here outstanding, as a Young Algerian doctor who fights like a dog to apply his own rules. Like this one to help a near death old woman not to suffer anymore. See what I mean? It is not a indictment for euthanasia, as was for instance MILLION DOLLAR BABY, but only a gripping story, sometimes very hard to Watch. His character is awesome. A true hero, who doesn't hesitate to sacrifice himself for his ideas. Only the last two minutes are a bit run of the mill. But for the rest, don't hesitate.