Review of The Physician (2013) by Alejandro G — 14 Aug 2015

"The Wants to be Healed?".

In the Middle Ages, those were perhaps the scariest words you could possibly hear. The Physician, directed by German little known Philipp Stolzl, is perhaps as close a glimpse as you'll get of medieval medicine from a film, and likely after watching it you'll never again complain about modern high health insurance premiums (I kid, of course. Those still really do suck.) The film follows Rob (played by a starry-eyed Tom Payne), an illiterate English peasant living in gloomy Dark Ages England, who has dreams of healing people of the many scary and inexplicable ailments that constantly afflict them. After the premature death of his mother from appendicitis, Rob sets out with a traveling barber/surgeon (played by Stellan Skarsgard, doing what he does best, namely acting gruff and scaring small children), merrily pulling teeth and amputating limbs without benefit of even modest anesthesia, until an encounter with some Jewish physicians entirely upends his meager world view, and he seeks to travel to far off Persia to learn from the famous Muslim physician and philosopher Ibn Sina (Ben Kingsley, whose super power is that he can play just about any ethnicity west of Burma).

The film is bit longer than usual, but it makes good use of the time in pacing and setting. The film is a splendor for the eyes if not exactly for the ear, and despite a few historical hiccups presents a very intimate look at 11th century medicine. Skarsgard, Kingsley, and Payne all present likable characters, which is something of a change from the usual brooding presences that inhabit such historical dramas. The film's theme of religion vs. science does feel a bit borrowed Agora, though. You almost get the sense that it may as well be a sequel, both in its pacing and its story of a bright innovator ahead of their time whose work is eventually swallowed up in the midst of violent events beyond their control. There is even a scene, akin to Agora's panoramic shots of the Earth from space, where we are briefly presented with an incision from the inner space perspective of blood vessels and platelets, with light shining down from above, as if for the first time in human history. As in Agora, the film is ultimately saved by its heartfelt spirit of inquiry, which its wisely chooses to embrace rather than focus on more every day melodramas.