Botoks

I have never been a fan of the director Patryk Vega, who is despised by proffessional critics, but his brutal and simple movies, mostly about mafia or crime, break commercial records in Poland. However, I decided to give Botoks a chance. And it turned out to be better, than I expected. Definitely not a masterpiece, but decent six stars.

The film is a dark comedy, with many shocking scenes and risky humour - that's why it is defintely not a proposal for everyone. Actors' play is very good, and dialogues are vivid. The director claims, that all dialogues and situations are inspired by real inside anecdotes, and it is plausible (well, maybe apart from a dog scene) - however, of course, they are overdrawn. But I'm amazed, when the reviewers hate this film because it shows Poles as drunk or dumb people. Obviously, the director focusses on drinking, incompetent, unsympathetic, greedy, pervert, misogynic healthcare workers, but such is the convention of the movie, and such people can be found in any country. We have plenty of soap operas about competent and caring doctors. There are however exceptions in the movie - main heroines, who care about their patients, even if they are burnt-out and harsh. We touch here the most important feature of the movie - it is a story of four strong, independent women in traditional men's world. And the misogyny of many older male doctors is a sad fact.

One delicate theme is a subtle anti-abortionist tone of the movie, although in my opinion it is legitimate director's voice in discussion. There is no direct message, that the abortion is wrong, nor blaming of women, who want abortion. It is however perfectly understandable, when one female doctor decides, that she doesn't want to perform any more abortions, after she is expecting a baby herself. Demanding a right to free abortion, we forget, that the doctor has to abort a human being. Indeed, the abortion is surely no good, and it is good, that the film makes us think, avoiding primitive propaganda. It must be however pointed out, that the movie diverges strongly from Polish reality in this subject. Instead of a medical director insisiting, that every doctor should perform abortions, there were far more common cases, when hospital directors or local conservative politicians or even priests demanded, that every doctor should sign a refusal conscience clause. And after law change, proceeded by Polish conservative government in 2020, genetic defects are no more considered a reason of abortion, not mentioning free abortion - and as a result, legal abortion is almost impossible in Poland for now on...

The pace and the choppy jumps between story lines reminded me of early Guy Ritchie films. That aside, I found the film fresh and original. The humour is dark and the life and death topics are handled without sentiment, so it's very grown up. But it's got a heart too, and the characters, especially the women, are engaging, for all their human failings!

Top marks for the acting, and a decent overall score. Would have been a solid 10 had the abortion argument been more even handed.

Shockingly realistic film uncovering drama from real life of health care, absolutely brilliant. One of the best foreign language films I've watched this year. It's not an easy or comfortable watch. It's biting, hard-hitting, funny and altogether moving. Many drastic situations and the brutality from the labor is shown up to our face without any limitations. Real eye-opener.

I was pleasantly surprised with this movie. Four women; three doctors and another just a nobody establish a bond and grow in a male dominated medicine world. The movie is able to keep the black comedy running for most of the time; and when not; it just reflects the anguish these people are living. Basically the four individual stories get tangled and at the end; the four characters had grown and changer their lives. As almost everything is medicine related; there are several strong shocking moments (like a C-section showed completely). The scenes seems real so it might affect people with a week stomach. Not all the parts work perfect and some things look forced; but the focus was obviously to show the corruption in medicine and pharmaceutics and criticized overall chauvinism in medicine. In brief if you understand Polish it might even be funnier; otherwise enjoy the subtitles.

I just can't imagine how this movie was being so popular in our cinemas (yeah I'm Polish), this is by all means real trash. Let's get some basics straight out:

• the movie states it is inspired by true story - yeah the same can be said for ZOMBIE SS as it is based on real nazis and world war II..
• drinking and corrupt doctors? - yeah there are some bad apples, just like everywhere. You got dirty cops, arsonists firemen etc but the way movie portraits everyone in the capital city of Poland.. it looks like all the doctors there are drunk, rapists, killers, lack morality and messup just every frickin time and doesn't care.
• this movie shows how abortions work - OMFG...people writing reviews saying how this movie is showing the "reality of sad medicine" SHUT THE EF UP..I can imagine ppl that enjoy this kind of movie in cinema are way below certain amount of IQ but please stop spilling the crap. The way doctors and medical staff act in the movie, the way they talk to patients, things they do; this is all just a parody of how it could be. But still, dumb ppl think this is all true and this is how it works. Not to mention how much medically inaccurate the movie is, there is just ton of crap they say and explain but nothing holds true.
• this movie shows how bad child delivery works - again, just like with abortions above. Yeah sometime when you give birth it can get messy, it can get complicated, babies die or get 'damaged' but those are considered mistakes and overall the process is rather professional. What we get in the movie? a doctor comes in and starts pulling baby by head so hard that the whole bed with woman starts to move around the room:D
• the movie touches on a 'touchy' and difficult topic - YES, THIS IS THE ONLY THING THIS MOVIE DOES NOT MESS UP. Doesn't matter what is your opinion on the topic of abortion, IVF and all things around those; the topic is still hot in Poland and questions morality, religion and own beliefs. The movie is basically about 4 women that all work in medical business (either doctors, paramedics, pharma) and their lifes' dilemas 3 of them have something to do with pregnancy/abortion so this is kinda a big focus of the movie. I'm not saying this movie is doing this right, I don't say the movie is right or wrong. That is because the movie itself doesn't state a specific opinion about that topic. It just shows it and let you think for yourself. HOWEVER I think that the way movie presents the topic and characters is neither helping the discussion nor giving any specific angle towards it. IT IS JUST SO BAD...

And the main issue with the movie: Technically it's terrible. Acting from most of the actors is pure gold rare#1 blue ribbon crap. Yeah they are some decent and popular famous actors and they are OK in here. But mostly the film is filled with characters that are played by terrible actors and it just shows so much. Secondly the writing and overall story. It's boring to hell, dialouges are terribly written, not engaging, you don't care for the characters at all. You just want the movie/story to end, and when it does end nothing happens. No big finale, no moral lesson learned, it just stops at a certain point in time and lives of the characters and you absolutely doesn't care for anybody in the movie. The movie is also filled with tons of "comic relief" and sitcom scenes. They can be considered funny, but not funny funny. Rather "borat funny" and i assume nobody is expecting that from a movie that tries to pose as a legit story with tough topics. Although these parts of the film keep you stuck to the screen as they generate a real cringefest, you still can't forget how much crap the movie is.