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THE GOD COMMITTEE (2021, USA) – 6/10

The Board of God from the title of this almost typical television movie written and directed by a certain Austin Stark is the hospital board that decides which of the patients will receive a heart for transplantation. On the board is the experienced surgeon Andre Boxer (Kelsey Grammer, who here does not resemble Frasier from the series of the same name), as well as his 25 years younger lover, also a surgeon Jordan Taylor (Julia Stiles). In the center of attention of this weak combination of thriller and drama is the debate about which of the patients will get the heart that suddenly arrived and it must be “used up” as soon as possible, otherwise it will fail and become unusable. In addition to Boxer and Jordan, there are four other people on the board, among them the director of the hospital, a priest who is also a lawyer, a psychologist and the head nurse, and it is not an easy choice at all.

Especially since one of the candidates is the lecherous son of a powerful father (Dan Hedaya) who has promised the hospital a $25 million donation if they elect his addicted son who was apparently high on cocaine when he suffered a heart attack. The second candidate is obese and has bipolar disorder, but is also a caring father of three children, the third is already in his seventies, and the fourth does not want surgery. The decision is clearly not an easy one. At first it is a bit confusing, but we follow the story in two parallel periods, in the moments when it is decided who will get the heart, as well as seven years later when we see Boxer as an old and tortured old man in his own research clinic for transplants whose main financier is Hedaya .

Well, someone somewhere noticed, so thematically “The God Committee” was placed somewhere halfway between “12 Angry Men” and an average episode of “Emergency Service”, but it all turned out to be quite weak and unconvincing. The dialogues are quite hollow, the direction is completely ziher-like, it all seems rather monotonous and even the acting is not at a certain level and it looks as if the actors did not believe too much in this story. As time goes by, it will slide more and more towards melodrama, and this film turned out to be below the already low expectations.

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