Threshold

"Threshold" is a meticulously crafted Canadian drama with several stars in top form. There's Donald Sutherland as the heart doctor who is warm and genial, but still keeps an emotional distance from his daily activities. This is evidenced in the scene where he's talking about the miracles that he's experienced in his life, and he doesn't mention a single one of his life-saving operations. He doesn't see himself as a Superman, just an ordinary man doing his job. He has no ego or God-like persona, he's just a dedicated doctor. He is so phenomenal in this role that I would have to say it's my favorite Donald Sutherland performance, and he's given many great ones. I also thought this was one of Jeff Goldblum's best performances, right up there with "The Fly". In "Threshold", he is totally believable as a 34-year-old man who has dedicated probably every inch of free space in his mind thinking about his exhilirating project for over a decade, possibly all his life. When people scoff at his ideas with vague, juvenile arguments, he begins rambling and rambling about the specific virtues of his experiment so descriptively, passionately, sometimes euphorically that the result is often exciting, like in the incredible scene towards the end between him and the radio personality; he always totally ignores any childish comments and goes straight to the heart of the matter. It's no wonder that when his invention seems to work he is suddenly overcome with grandiosity, because he basically is his project, totally. Few people ever devote this much of their life and minds to one incredible concept like this, and as a result, he becomes carried away.

Mare Winningham is such a priceless jewel in "Threshold" as Sutherland's first artificial heart transplant. She is luminous in every one of her scenes, particularly towards the end. We feel so much sympathy for her character and only want the best for her in the end. She should have been Oscar-nominated along with Sutherland and Goldblum for this. I'll never forget how much I could truly feel her sense of loss and fear after the surgery: "I'm just not the same."

The film obviously raises the issue that many people feel Sutherland and Goldblum are "playing God", and I could be wrong, but that was kind of an impression I got from one scene right after Winningham's surgery when she's still sedated. Sutherland comes to see her and as he's watching her sleep he hears the ominous sound of a helicopter overhead, which we know is the press, but it's almost like a rumble from a God uknown, a private message to Sutherland, at least that's what I imagined his character might be thinking. I'm not sure if it signified an approval of or anger at the operation, but I would guess that in his character's mind it would have been the latter.

The film has a deceptively happy ending. Winningham seems to physically fine in the end, but as she's walking with her parents from the hospital we can see in her eyes that she's lost herself and will probably never be the same. She may in time learn to forget somewhat about her anxieties or put them aside, but it's doubtful. Then of course there's always the possibility she could die the very next day, being that the prosthetic heart is so experimental.

The film has some very beautifully lit scenes, like the first scene that we see Winningham talking to Sutherland on the street at night. It's the almost glowing background lights that make this scene so beautiful, apart from the actors; it has an ethereal feel to it.

I walked away from "Threshold" feeling that I had gained something as a human being from watching it. Not only that, I enjoyed the experience!

My rating: 10/10

Amazingly to me, this film appeared on cable very often when my child was an infant with congenital heart defects. The makeup giving Mare Winningham the look of oxygen deprivation was very realistic and gives the viewer a picture of the "dusky" skin tone of some heart patients. The restraint of the Vrain/Carol relationship was right on, and the peripheral but agonized part of the parent was poignantly depicted by Carol's father. The film is almost a relief from the typical "dramatized" film about illness. Heart difficulties are inherently dramatic to the lay person (perhaps not to doctors, though) and need no melodramatic treatment. The understatement, the lack of statement all serve the subject well. The cold, orderly world of the (urban, state-of-the-art)hospital that contains so much extraordinary work comes across beautifully in this film. I'm glad others appreciate it.

As near as I can tell, this movie is based directly on Dr. Denton Cooley's career. Dr. Cooley WAS the first doctor to use an artificial heart in a patient whose heart was unrepairable on the operating table. He was chastised for doing this at the time without approval and so he started his own hospital, The Texas Heart Institute. This movie closely follows the circumstance of that operation that transpired in the 1960's long before the first APPROVED artificial heart was used in Barney Clark in December of 1982. I remember the time well as I had to wait an extra day for Dr. Cooley to operate on me as he was delayed in getting back to Houston after Mr. Clarks operation. This is one movie based on closely related facts.

I think the most attractive sci-fi movies are those that are closer to truth than fiction. I remember when Jurassic Park came out in 1993 (I see you Jeff Goldblum) it was such a hot topic. In fact, even though I was only a teenager, I don't think I'd ever heard the term DNA before. Jurassic Park popularized the three letter acronym and made us all believe that it may even be possible to revive a long dead species.

Threshold has a similar believability. Doctor Vrain (Donald Sutherland) is the world's preeminent heart surgeon. He has performed such cutting edge heart surgeries they could be considered miracles. But there are conditions he can't even fix.

Dr. Aldo Gehring (Jeff Goldblum) is a biologist that believes he can create an artificial heart. As he put it, man didn't fly by mimicking a bird, they flew by creating a machine different than a bird. So trying to mimic a heart is similarly futile. Dr. Aldo invented a heart with a tiny steam engine that uses just a drop of water that it constantly recycles to drive it. And instead of pumping blood as a normal heart would by contracting and expanding, it uses a vortex action to pump blood throughout the body.

Threshold gives us that perfectly believable blend of science and fiction. It gives us that with the drama of a hospital movie/show that so many of us love. In the end, we all want to see lives saved because it gives us hope. And maybe that's what the true appeal of Threshold is--that it instills hope.

"Threshold" is a film with a very clear, heavy presence of reality. The trade-off of this, of course, is the same as all such realist films - pacing. This is not something you can watch for big thrills and the explosive energy of medical trauma. Richard Pearce, and his cinematographer, Michel Brault, create a world that looks and feels so human it's almost painful. Each successive scene is like a new revelation on light and colour and depth of field. Brault gets right into the action, the movement, the emotional expression. The most remarkable thing about James Salter's script is how it avoids all those common medical clichés and falsehoods so often employed in such stories. The three lead actors - Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, and Mare Winningham - are observed in an almost documentarian way. They are people of depth, but not in a way we commonly see in films. The characters in "Threshold" are not distant, no, but what we get from them depends on our power of perception. They are laid out in front of us in much the same way as each person we encounter in life. That's the great strength of Pearce's direction here (his next film, "Country", has a similar approach).

"Threshold" is mostly unknown, and not available on DVD. There is one main reason for this - it was a Canadian production, released at a time when such films weren't widely seen, and commonly forgotten soon after. I paid a significant amount to purchase the VHS online. I don't regret this, but the breathtaking cinematography deserves a modern format.