The god committee

Original title:	The god committee
Director:	Austin Stark
Release:	Cinema
Running time:	98 minutes
Release date:	02 july 2021
Rating:

A hospital transplant committee has one hour to decide who will receive a donor heart. Six years later, what impact has this decision had on the recipient as well as on the committee members?

Nicole's Review

Based on a play by Mark St. Germain, The God Committee opens with black and white images of doctors throughout medical history, working on patients. We give way to modern day--a teen couple talking about philosophy. They say goodnight, but are actually saying goodbye, because the boy is hit by a car. On his ID, we see he is an organ donor. Juxtaposed with this tight shot is the aerial image of the big city, the sound of sirens. Cut to the darkness of a quiet home--Dr. Andre Boxer (Kelsey Grammer) gets the call that a heart is available for his patient Serena Vasquez. His younger lover Dr. Jordan Taylor (Julia Stiles) says he must be happy, since his patient has five grandkids. He says she is too old; there are others more deserving, but the committee must decide.

In the cold, gray conference room, the committee meets to discuss who will get the heart. Dr. Valerie Gilroy (Janeane Garofalo), leads the meeting. They discuss worthiness, basing their decisions not on the viability of the candidate (health, disposition) and his societal contribution (job, kids) but also the monetary aspect--who has secondary insurance and thus better paying coverage. They debate their positions, with very little emotion.

This stark room is intercut with the patients, interacting with the staff. We meet a big, friendly guy who wants to live. At 335 pounds, he tells the doctor \if he is rejected from the donor list again, he’d just like to go home and die. Part of the debate behind closed doors deals with his mental health issues and a past suicide attempt, not to mention his morbid obesity. Then there is Serena who expresses joy and gratitude to Dr. Boxer for the heart she is about to receive. She embraces him; she has no idea he sees her as unworthy for this precious commodity of a heart.

While the committee is meeting to decide who can make the waiting list, a young heart patient is brought in by ambulance. The father of the young man is wealthy and powerful. But, as Dr. Boxer points out, he had overdosed in the past; if he is using, there is nothing he can do to help him; he would be disqualified from the donor list automatically. The young man’s father leverages his wealth, making a contribution of millions of dollars to the hospital’s cardiac program--with the caveat that his son’s life must be saved or the donation will not be made. Despite the whole committee seeing a lack of worthiness on the young man’s part, they now discuss the importance of bringing money into the department; their equipment is old and in desperate need of update. With that money, perhaps they could save many more lives.

When the intended donor recipient dies on the table, the committee must decide whether the most worthy patient will receive the heart or the one who will bring millions of dollars. Ultimately, it sheds light on the inner workings of transplant committees; they have God-like power to decide who will have a chance to live and who will die. And it asks a further question--which life is more valuable? The one whose value is intrinsic but limited to that person or the one who will bring money to a program that desperately needs it.

The God Committee
Written and directed by Austin Stark
Produced by Molly Conners, Amanda Bowers, Jonathan Rubenstein, Ari Pinchot, Jane Oster, Bingo Gubelmann, Benji Kohn
Starring Kelsey Grammer, Julia Stiles, Janeane Garofalo, Dan Hedaya, Colman Domingo
Music by The Newton Brothers
Cinematography : Matt Sakatani Roe
Edited by Alan Canant
Production companies : Crystal City Entertainment, Paper Street Films, Phiphen Pictures, Plain Jane Pictures, KGB Films
Distributed by Vertical Entertainment
Release date : June 20, 2021 (Tribeca), July 2, 2021 (United States)
Running time : 98 minutes

Seen at the Worldwide Premier, June 20th 2021, Tribeca Film Festival

Nicole's Mark:

Mulder's Review

Discovered at the Tribeca Film Festival, director Austin Stark's (The Runner (2015)) second film is a medical thriller about doctors Dr. Boxer (Kelsey Grammar), Dr. Gilroy (Janeanne Garofalo) and Dr. Taylor (Julia Stiles) who are part of a heart transplant committee in a New York hospital. They meet regularly to debate the merits of transplant candidates while considering the hospital's funding needs. Their views diverge because they disagree about which factors should govern their decisions. Six years later, they are faced with dramatic repercussions on specific decisions.

The God Committee is based on a play by Mark St. Germain and is intended to be realistic at all times, refusing all possible stylistic effects. The structure of the film is original, alternating two time periods and explaining the impact of the past on the present. This particular format could have been problematic and lose the spectators on the way, but the scenario and the direction of Austin Stark find the right approach and know how to hold our attention. This success is also due to the solid interpretation of Kelsey Grammer and. Julia Stiles. It is impossible not to see in this hospital drama a real tribute to the men behind the scenes, to the professionals of the health system who every day do everything to save their patients. In our current era, we can only applaud these professionals who risked their lives every day to face a global pandemic that has left indelible marks in our collective memories.

The film is even more interesting because it confronts the different points of view of the doctors in this hospital. While Dr. Andre Boxer (Kelsey Grammer) is a person who doesn't consider the human aspect but only the numbers and the facts, Dr. Jordan Taylor (Julia Stiles) takes into account the human aggregate in his decisions and thus the world that surrounds his patients. Although most of the action takes place in a hospital ward and the film has a very static feel to it, the director was able to inject a real emotion into every minute of the film. The God Committee was definitely one of the highlights of the Tribeca festival and we can only encourage you to discover it.

Seen on June 22, 2021 (Tribeca Festival Online press access)

Mulder's Mark: