Where to begin? The narration throughout detracts from the story, minimizing any depth of character that may have been there. Cage's voice over plagues what may have been an otherwise engrossing story had there been less dialogue. Unlike movies that succumb to the "tell-dont-show" method of storytelling, this simply just over TELLS everything to the point of boredom. It feels as if the filmmakers don't trust us to get the message, thus beating us over the head with narration which, in some places repeats things that have already been said by the character just minutes before.
Narration aside, my biggest complaint about the movie, which I found nearly unwatchable, is it's portrayal of those in the medical profession, and paramedics in particular. Does this mean I wasn't entertained? Well, no. The story, what little there was, was interesting enough. However, as far as plot goes, it is severely lacking.
The reason I found it near unwatchable is in the way it handled the hospital staff scenes and paramedic characters. Now, I don't know what being a doctor was like in the 90's nor do I know what paramedics can get away with. What I do know is that that I can't be expected to sit through a 2 hour long movie about paramedics in New York and not come away asking, "How did they get away with that?".
I would argue that almost nothing presented in the movie is accurate or realistic. Now, I could be wrong, but I really hope for all our sakes I'm not. Everything ranging from paramedics simply not showing up to a call, all the way up to them drinking while driving and crashing the ambulance into other cars-without consequence, is on display.
Between the doctors in the hospital and the paramedics on the street, everything was off. Nothing in the hospital was cohesive, almost as if it existed solely in the context of the scene they were in at the moment. Staff contradicted themselves depending on what the movie needed at any given time and the doctors were chillingly cold and unprofessional. It felt like an all out assult on the people it was depicting. If this is realistic, I haven't seen it.
When it comes to issues of realism, you can expect a certain level of accuracy for any given movie. This is NOT a movie that gets away with saying paramedics were drinking and driving, wrecked cars, flipped the ambulance, and walked away with no police intervention and zero repercussions. It is also NOT a movie that gets to introduce a paramedic character that casually assaults a person in the back of an ambulance.(again, with no repercussions)
Of the many, MANY egregious instances of characters acting in ways that would otherwise be wildly inappropriate or outright illegal, there's- paramedics arguing about what calls to take, casually instructing suicidal people on how to correctly kill themselves, making small talk over the radio with dispatch instead of taking calls and, to top it all off, one paramedic straight up nearly murders someone.
You might be thinking, "I'm sure all of this plays into the story somehow". It does not, unless the story is trying to show how crooked the New York medical profession is. There is zero consequence to any actions by the characters. The movie itself doesn't even bat an eye at the character nearly murdering a mentally ill person. Of course, we accept that character as being a BAD person but it doesn't matter in the context of the movie. And to make it worse, the main "good" guy stands buy and let's it happen, never saying a single word about it. He just takes him to the hospital, in the ambulance, with his partner who nearly murdered the man and drops him off like nothing happened.
Of course, there's an underlying message about forgiving yourself and letting go that's, if we're being honest, really superficial. Nothing about the story warrants the outrageous actions shown onscreen. The actions of the characters have no bearing on the story whatsoever. It's a cold hearted, numb look at the lives of the ones who are supposed to keep us safe. Only, I don't think that's what they were going for.
Narration aside, my biggest complaint about the movie, which I found nearly unwatchable, is it's portrayal of those in the medical profession, and paramedics in particular. Does this mean I wasn't entertained? Well, no. The story, what little there was, was interesting enough. However, as far as plot goes, it is severely lacking.
The reason I found it near unwatchable is in the way it handled the hospital staff scenes and paramedic characters. Now, I don't know what being a doctor was like in the 90's nor do I know what paramedics can get away with. What I do know is that that I can't be expected to sit through a 2 hour long movie about paramedics in New York and not come away asking, "How did they get away with that?".
I would argue that almost nothing presented in the movie is accurate or realistic. Now, I could be wrong, but I really hope for all our sakes I'm not. Everything ranging from paramedics simply not showing up to a call, all the way up to them drinking while driving and crashing the ambulance into other cars-without consequence, is on display.
Between the doctors in the hospital and the paramedics on the street, everything was off. Nothing in the hospital was cohesive, almost as if it existed solely in the context of the scene they were in at the moment. Staff contradicted themselves depending on what the movie needed at any given time and the doctors were chillingly cold and unprofessional. It felt like an all out assult on the people it was depicting. If this is realistic, I haven't seen it.
When it comes to issues of realism, you can expect a certain level of accuracy for any given movie. This is NOT a movie that gets away with saying paramedics were drinking and driving, wrecked cars, flipped the ambulance, and walked away with no police intervention and zero repercussions. It is also NOT a movie that gets to introduce a paramedic character that casually assaults a person in the back of an ambulance.(again, with no repercussions)
Of the many, MANY egregious instances of characters acting in ways that would otherwise be wildly inappropriate or outright illegal, there's- paramedics arguing about what calls to take, casually instructing suicidal people on how to correctly kill themselves, making small talk over the radio with dispatch instead of taking calls and, to top it all off, one paramedic straight up nearly murders someone.
You might be thinking, "I'm sure all of this plays into the story somehow". It does not, unless the story is trying to show how crooked the New York medical profession is. There is zero consequence to any actions by the characters. The movie itself doesn't even bat an eye at the character nearly murdering a mentally ill person. Of course, we accept that character as being a BAD person but it doesn't matter in the context of the movie. And to make it worse, the main "good" guy stands buy and let's it happen, never saying a single word about it. He just takes him to the hospital, in the ambulance, with his partner who nearly murdered the man and drops him off like nothing happened.
Of course, there's an underlying message about forgiving yourself and letting go that's, if we're being honest, really superficial. Nothing about the story warrants the outrageous actions shown onscreen. The actions of the characters have no bearing on the story whatsoever. It's a cold hearted, numb look at the lives of the ones who are supposed to keep us safe. Only, I don't think that's what they were going for.