I caught this on Netflix tonight and was extremely disappointed. I understand the choice of grainy footage. It worked as well as the experimental bleached film did in Three Kings, which considering is in my top ten movies, says a lot. The ethical dilemmas throughout this film, until the final one, are realistic. Some doctors will bend the rules and play *wink wink nod nod* if a person can have lifesaving treatment in another country with a different set, or unenforced, rules as the child's Doctor did in this film. The mother opening up Harrison's (played expertly by Sam Shepard) medicine cabinet and the father confronting him on the golf course by mentioning the medications found which were all for post-transplant patients.
Suddenly the father starts on what appears to be a wild goose chase to find Harrison's surgeon went on far too long. Most of us know by now how dangerous that area of Mexico is.
While the mother is driving down to Mexico with ailing daughter, with a week left to live, in tow we finally feel some urgency. The ending from there is a let down.
*spoiler* Once the street urchin was run over by the transplant surgeon's ordered motorcycle arrives at the hospital and has his chest open, along with a leg needing amputating, his chances of survival are very low. Yet suddenly the dying girls father has an ethical moment and allows his daughter to die so this child may, although in reality unlikely, live a full life. At the end we see him with a very western prosthesis with the other children living on the street. We also see the American couple bury their daughter . The mother, not forgiving the father, walks away from the funeral with anger at her husband. The husband, having taken the high road, is more comfortable with her death as a natural progression of her terminal disease.
I'm sorry. Although not a parent, if I had the chance to save my child's life by transplanting the organs of a murdered child who already lost a leg and chest pried open my child would have his organs in a heartbeat. Not for the reason I believe the attempted murder was wrong: that wouldn't be a factor. I would accept the donated organ for the simple reason both children likely will die. Why not save one life?
Suddenly the father starts on what appears to be a wild goose chase to find Harrison's surgeon went on far too long. Most of us know by now how dangerous that area of Mexico is.
While the mother is driving down to Mexico with ailing daughter, with a week left to live, in tow we finally feel some urgency. The ending from there is a let down.
*spoiler* Once the street urchin was run over by the transplant surgeon's ordered motorcycle arrives at the hospital and has his chest open, along with a leg needing amputating, his chances of survival are very low. Yet suddenly the dying girls father has an ethical moment and allows his daughter to die so this child may, although in reality unlikely, live a full life. At the end we see him with a very western prosthesis with the other children living on the street. We also see the American couple bury their daughter . The mother, not forgiving the father, walks away from the funeral with anger at her husband. The husband, having taken the high road, is more comfortable with her death as a natural progression of her terminal disease.
I'm sorry. Although not a parent, if I had the chance to save my child's life by transplanting the organs of a murdered child who already lost a leg and chest pried open my child would have his organs in a heartbeat. Not for the reason I believe the attempted murder was wrong: that wouldn't be a factor. I would accept the donated organ for the simple reason both children likely will die. Why not save one life?