Coma (1978)

☆ ☆ ☆

Coma (1978) – M. Crichton

Extremely schematic thriller in the seventies paranoid vein directed unflashily by Michael Crichton (who also adapted the screenplay from Robin Cook’s book).  It starts out alright with Geneviève Bujold’s Susan Wheeler becoming suspicious about a series of unexplained comas at her workplace (Boston Memorial Hospital).  She confides in her lover Michael Douglas who may or may not be trustworthy.  But about an hour in, we know she is correct and then the running starts.  Of course, there are further discoveries to be made and we don’t quite know all of the answers until the final few minutes, when (like a classic episode of the Batman TV show) Bujold is captured by the main villain and about to meet her doom unless unless unless (she is rescued, of course).  So, it’s a classic cross-cutting finale straight out of the silent days.  I suppose the big secret discovered at the Jefferson Institute (where comatose patients are sent to live out their days in a brutalist monstrosity) is suitably surprising but somehow they couldn’t hang a whole film on it.  Nevertheless, this was fine as mindless fare when your mind is nowhere.