digdilem

I have to agree with most of the other reviewers here and say this is strange film that promises much but delivers little.

Things I liked: The visuals were very nice and gave genuine atmosphere. Margot Robbie was excellent and paired well with Simon Pegg, they had good screen chemistry and casting directors would do well to team them up again.

Things I did not like: The story was... Well, it wasn't really there. It delivered the twist about a third of the way in and then pretended like it didn't, and then meandered around like a bored teenager, kicking at at the floor and sighing occasionally.

Dexter Fletcher deserves a mention, but not in a good way. The character was obviously meant to be deeply unlikeable, and he served it just like that. Single faceted, no depth, just an outright unpleasant man, surly, rude, unfunny and just unpleasant to watch.

By all means watch it if you want to be confused and bored, or are fans of Pegg or Robbie or good photography and can overlook the rest. Don't watch it if you expect an entertaining 95 minutes, because it isn't.

Gave this 10/10. I don't like doing that for any film, it's over-used and often a bit lazy, but I gave it considerable thought and even waited until the next day before doing so and stand by it. This film moved me. It also shocked me, enthralled me, excited me, challenged me, angered me and disgusted me.

I knew nothing about this film before watching it, other than seeing a clip on tiktok of the confrontation between Paddy Considine and Gary Stretch's characters in front of the garages and thought I'd give it a go. Very glad I did.

I won't say anything about the plot, others have and it's difficult not to spoil it.

So what's good about it?

The telling of this story. It has foreshadowing, pace and a genuine feeling that we're seeing something real. The characters are believable, the dialogue natural (A lot seems to be improvised) and at no point do you feel it's a performance put on for the camera or you, the viewer.

And Paddy Considine's intensity and controlled anger is visceral. You can feel his power being held in check all the way through, except when he's alone with his brother. Then, and only then, he's at peace.

I don't know if this film will be watchable to those who want light, airy, feel-good films. It isn't that. I'm also not sure it will translate well to a non-British audience. And the stock image of the gasmask for a cover pic is a poor choice, that somehow lessens this film into a looking like a mindless slasher flick, and it's anything but that.

This is the worst medical drama I've ever watched. In fact, I think it's the worst drama I've watched. So bad that I only lasted for 20 minutes and am still angry that it even exists.

(Not spoilers as they all happen within the first 20 minutes)

Opening scene focuses on an operating room murdering a patient through several layers of unprofessional behaviour and negligence by everyone in the room. An old surgeon who's just done a 30 hour shift. An assistant who's taking photos for her social media and an anaesthetician who fails to monitor his patient because he's focusing on that.

Then everyone very quickly agrees to invent a fake reason for the death, ignoring that the post mortem will immediately discover their lie, trapping everyone in the room into criminal fraud and opening the hospital to a huge litigation risk. This would not happen at any level - including humans all rapidly agreeing not to blame the people who really caused the death and therefore accepting a larger blame upon themselves.

Then we get introduced to the main protagonist, who's adopting a power stance whilst leering at a selection of women. He's trying so hard to be alpha dog (Including Hoo! Hah! Hand slapping) it hurts just looking at him. He's racist, unprofessional, and massively sexist. Nobody would employ this guy, he's going to get you sued constantly. Nobody would WORK with this guy.

Yet all the staff seem to love him because he's good at his job. Nobody else is? Nobody else in that hospital can practice medicine? C'mon...

I stopped after 20 minutes because it was so bad. Seriously bad.

Every single character I saw was horrible and two dimensional. The direction was poor. The sound levels were weirdly compressed. The writing ridiculous. Camera work - well, actually that was merely banal.

It's like someone watched a couple episodes each of House, Scrubs, Suits and Grays Academy and actively decided to take the worst parts of each of them and none of the good.