The God Committee – Brings All the Moral Questions
Director: Austin Stark
Writer: Austin Stark (Screenplay) Mark St Germain (Play)
Starring: Kelsey Grammer, Julia Stiles, Colman Domingo, Janeane Garofalo, Dan Hedaya, Patricia R Floyd, Peter Kim
Plot: An organ transplant committee has one hour to decide which of three patients deserves a life-saving heart. Seven years later, the committee members struggle with the consequences of that fateful decision.
Runtime: 1 Hour 38 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The God Committee starts as we meet the transplant committee at a local hospital, Dr Andre Boxer (Grammer), Dr Jordan Taylor (Stiles), Father Dunbar (Domingo), Nurse Wilkes (Floyd), Dr Lau (Kim) and Dr Valerie Gilroy (Garofalo), as we follow the discussion they must have before making the difficult decisions about who can move up or down the list.
As Dr Boxer is looking to push through a new solution for the organ shortages coming in the future and his own failing health would leave him trying to push himself into the conversation to see his own ideas become reality, leading to the committee needing to show us how they decide before the organ expires.
Thoughts on The God Committee
Characters & Performances – Dr Andre Boxer is one of the committee members, he is the man that will go onto perform the surgery on the patients, which will see him having his fair say on whether the team should go ahead or not. He does have a desire to make the world a better place where he is working on creating organs instead of relying on doners, even if he is one of the people that will need an organ in the future. Kelsey Grammer is great in this role, he gets to bring the doctor figure we have got to know for years to life in a more hands on approach, being able to deliver the important lines his character must go through. Dr Jordan Taylor is the youngest member of the committee, she must learn the difficult decision-making process the team go through, with her personal relationship potentially getting in the way, she is willing to push past the moral dilemmas of the decision making process. Julia Stiles does get the scenes with the biggest impact, shining through them. Father Dunbar brings a different dimension to the discussion, Dr Valerie Gilroy, Nurse Wilkes and Dr Lau complete the committee, with each having their own way to bring something to the table on the medical side of things.
Story – The story here brings us a group of medical personnel that are part of an organ transplant committee, that must discuss and make the difficult decision on who will get a heart, with three potential candidates waiting for one. This is a story broken up into a meeting and the aftermath down the line, which does hide the outcome for as long as possible, even if it does seem pretty obvious who was selected, showing the growth Dr Rachel Taylor goes through and the measure Dr Andre Boxer is going to try and find a smart solution in the future. It will offer the discussion in a way that will make you think about which one you believe should get the heart, but sadly never pushing this to the extremer limits we might have seen in a ‘House’ episode.
Themes – The God Committee is a drama thriller that is discussion based, much like a courtroom drama, with each member of the committee putting forward their own case about who should get the heart, each part of the process will reveal more about the candidates being put forward, trying to keep us guessing who will get the heart.
Signature Entertainment presents The God Committee on Digital Platforms from 19th July
Final Thoughts – The God Committee is a great thriller that brings a new light to one of the hardest decisions a doctor would have to make.
