 |
|
|
|
| | | |
| MatchFlick Member Reviews |
view all movie information
Directed By
Marc Schoelermann
Written By:
Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor
Cast:
Milo Ventimiglia, Michael Weston, Lauren Lee Smith, Dan Callahan, Johnny Whitworth, Alyssa Milano, Keir O'Donnell, John de Lancie, Sam Witwer, Larry Drake, Jarvis W. George, Eurydice Davis, Don Smith, Kate Mulligan, Buddy Lewis, Seth Baird, Lawrence J. Russo, Anne Girard, Mary Grace, Mei Melançon, Deborah Pollack, Eric Kaldor, Courtney Buckley
|
|
|
| |
Pathology (2008)
 email this review to a friend
Movie Review by Jarrod
April 20th, 2008
|  |
'Pathology' is about a group of med students who competing to see who among them can commit the perfect murder. That they are med students is one thing; they are also, more or less, a bunch of arrogant rich kids, and this taps into the film's similarities to Murder by Numbers and Rope, both inspired by the real-life case of Leopold and Loeb. As med students, they assume they know so much about the human body that they could kill someone and cover their tracks so effectively the police could never figure out what happened. It represents a morbid fascination with murder and death, and in this instance, the movie evokes Flatliners. Are they planning this only for the thrill, to satisfy their own egos, or is it simply an exercise in intellectual elitism, they are so much smarter than everyone else, they couldn't possibly get caught. Here, they don't exactly underestimate the cops. Instead, the problem comes from someone within their own ranks, a guy named Ted (Milo Ventimiglia). He is a bit different from the rest of them, but nonetheless gets corrupted by Jake Gallo (Michael Weston), and brought into a world of sex and drugs, pursuing every kind of hedonistic impulse.
Ted might also be seduced by Juliette (Lauren Lee Smith), who is attached (at least most of the time) to Jake, but the kind of girl to whom fidelity is not much of an issue. Jake is a psycho, and the mastermind behind this demented contest, and when Ted decides that he may want out, that proves to be difficult. He could end up as Jake's next victim, or be framed for the murders and take the fall for the rest of his comrades. Ted thus has a crisis of conscience, but then that should be expected. His fiancee, Gwen (Alyssa Milano) apparently has no idea what he does at night, and she could well be threatened by his involvement in Jake's scheme. Med students would be used to the sight of blood and corpses, and they have surgical training, so this is significant to the murders themselves. The film is rated R, so it doesn't skimp on gore, or on much of anything else. As a thriller, it mostly works, even though I suppose not every detail makes sense, but screenwriters Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor tell the story well enough to keep it involving. No character transforms into a master criminal, regardless of his or her lofty claims to contrary. There are mistakes to be made, as plausibility would dictate, since no one is perfect, and thankfully that plausibility is never betrayed, or stretched to an unacceptable limit.
Milo Ventimiglia is convincing in his role as the susceptible Ted, though his susceptibility is a bit mysterious; Ted obviously is not the type of person who was deprived of female attention or who was miserably unpopular in high school. He also does not appear to be poor, so it is not as if he yearns desperately to become a member of high society. Maybe he is just weak-willed, at least initially, and cannot resist the charming and sinister Jake, or the advances of Juliette. Ventimiglia is consistently likable, so when Ted does come back to his senses, the audience is still on his side. Of course, considering Jake and the others, Ted is the only one about whom it would be possible to have such feelings. Ventimiglia is the star here, with top billing, but the rest of the attractive cast is good, too. Overall, 'Pathology' is a smart, stylish, and entertaining film.
email this review to a friend
Comment on this Review:
Sorry, you must be a member to add comments to reviews.
Join or Login. |
 Subscribe to MatchFlick Movie Reviews through RSS
|
