‘A Mistake’ Review: Surgeon Elizabeth Banks Gets Blamed for a Patient’s Death in an Effective Drama on Medical Ethics
variety.comDennis Harvey Film Critic It’s been 16 years since Christine Jeffs’ last feature, the seriocomic Amerindie sleeper “Sunshine Cleaning,” with Amy Adams and Emily Blunt.
Her new feature “A Mistake” hews back to her 2001 debut, “Rain,” in that it is set in her native New Zealand and adapts its script from a Kiwi author (in this case Carl Shuker’s fifth novel).
Though not a knockout, the director’s return affirms her knack for intelligent adult drama, here hinging on issues of medical ethics and bureaucracy — Elizabeth Banks plays an Auckland surgeon whose reputation and career are threatened when a patient dies after what had been anticipated as a routine procedure.
Quiver Distribution is releasing the Tribeca-premiered film to 100+ U.S. theaters this Friday. The distractingly named Elizabeth Taylor (Banks) is a highly regarded specialist, woken from a nap during one long night-shift by an emergency: A patient previously discharged as having minor ailments is re-admitted with severe abdominal pain, which the doctor judges as requiring immediate surgery.
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