Coma

Another of those movies that came out when I was quite young and always recognized the title of, even though I never got to see it because obviously I was too young for it was Coma. It doesn't show up as much as some other movies, but the last time it was on TCM and then the Watch TCM app, I made a point of watching it so I could finally do a review of it here.

Dr. Susan Wheeler (Geneviève Bujold) is a resident at Boston Memorial Hospital, who's in a romantic relationship with another doctor, Mark Bellows (Michael Douglas). Dr. Bellows is up for a chief of staff type position at the hospital, although he'll still be under the chief of surgery, Dr. Harris (Richard Widmark). Meanwhile, a friend from an exercise/yoga class, Nancy, has gotten herself pregnant and has decided on getting an abortion, which now that abortion is legal in Massachusetts is supposed to be a routine procedure.

Boston Memorial is also a teaching hospital, so some of the young residents are in on the operation on Nancy, which seems to go without a hitch... until it comes time to bring her out of anesthesia, at which point Nancy still has dilated pupils and all those other symptoms that seem consistent with a persistent vegetative state.

Susan can't believe it, and thinks that there must have been some sort of mistake on the part of the anesthesiologist. So she begins to do some snooping around, in ways that would clearly have violated patient privacy even then, although they still didn't have HIPAA in the 1970s. Needless to say she gets the head of the anesthesiology department riled up, along with Dr. Harris. Mark tries to keep believing in her and offering her what support he can, but it's not always easy since he's got his own career to worry about. (She should have called up Quincy.)

Soon enough, another patient (Tom Selleck who gets a credit in the end credits but not, if memory serves, the opening, but is instantly recognizable thanks to that mustache) dies during what is supposed to be a routine operation, and all the symptoms seem the same. So Susan keeps doing her investigation, and asks around a bit more, finding out that if you really wanted to kill somebody and make it look like there were no obvious causes of death, one good way to do it would be through the use of carbon monoxide.

At the same time, she's learned about the mysterious Jefferson Institute, where people with long-term medical needs are taken. They've pioneered a new way of caring for patients with such vegetative issues that will, they hope, make it cost less and save both society and the patients' families money. But with no cars in the parking lot and the ominous score, it's obvious that this is a bunch of BS, and Susan tries to break away from the tour of the facility and into the staff only section, which is highly dangerous.

I won't give away any more of the plot here. I will, however, say, that Coma requires a fair bit of suspension of disbelief. I've stated several times over the past few years since the start of the coronavirus stuff that it's become increasingly clear that conspiracy theories are more likely to be out in the open and predicated on getting people not to want to admit that they might have been wrong. So the sort of shadowy stuff portrayed here is, well, not likely. Just threaten to withhold care from people who haven't followed doctor's orders in the right way and you can get what you want.

It's also highly unlikely that Susan would be able to get around the hospital surreptitiously to do all the things she did and discover the nefarious plans of the antagonists, while the whole climax strains credulity too. Even with all that, however, Coma is still a fairly entertaining movie, especially if you can suspend your disbelief better than I can.