Chronic-2015

Director Michel Franco

Starring Tim Roth

Scott’s Review #682

Reviewed September 18, 2017

Grade: A-

Chronic (2015) is a brave film, a character study, that offers an in-depth look at the life of a male nurse. He has rich relationships with his patients.

The film also reflects not just the patients’ obvious physical needs, but the strong effects their dying has on the main character.

The film is quite bleak, with a quiet tone and very long scenes with little dialogue, but it’s a treasure in bold storytelling and brazen reflection.

The film is a subdued work requiring attention and focus.

Yes, some would deem Chronic to be slow, and most would describe it as “a downer”, but dismissing the film is a mistake, as it offers rich writing and an in-depth look at a vocation and lifestyle misunderstood or confusing to most people.

Tim Roth, famous for his bad-boy roles, especially in Quentin Tarantino films, does an about-face, delivering a superb, subdued performance as David Wilson, a lonely, depressed nurse in the Los Angeles area.

He is a quiet, kindly man whose internal pain registers on his face as he dutifully treats his mostly close-to-death patients, sometimes attending their funerals after they have expired.

Initially, we meet David as he treats a sickly young woman. Once beautiful, she is now haggard, and I cringed when the woman’s nude, skeleton-like body is on display as David washes her with a washcloth.

The filmmakers do not gloss over his tender attention to her private areas, shot gracefully rather than garishly.

Still, the long scene is frighteningly realistic.

When the woman succumbs to AIDS, David reluctantly becomes involved in a celebratory drink with a newly engaged young couple after he goes to a bar to unwind.

When he pretends the deceased woman is his wife, he receives sympathy, but the couple quickly becomes aloof when he reveals what she died of.

Does he do this purposely to push the couple away? Throughout the film, we realize that David thrives on being with his patients and can do no other work.

In contrast, he has difficulty with relationships with “normal” people.

Perplexities abound in this film, which makes the viewer think and ponder throughout and after the story ends.

For example, David searches a young girl’s Facebook account, looking at her photos; later, he finds the girl, who is studying medicine, and they happily reunite.

Is she his daughter or the daughter of a deceased patient?

Later, David is sued by an affluent family and subsequently fired after he watches porn with an older man to lift his spirits. There is a glimmer of uncertainty where we are not sure what David’s sexual orientation is.

In the most heartbreaking sequence of all, David begins caring for a middle-aged woman with progressive cancer.

Martha (Robin Bartlett) is strong-willed and no-nonsense and makes the painful decision not to continue with chemotherapy after suffering chronic nausea and later soiling herself.

It is apparent that her family only visits her out of obligation, as she lies to them that her cancer is gone and she is in the clear. She then pleads with David to end her life with dignity using a heavy dose of morphine- the sequence is heartbreaking.

The final scene will blow you away, and I didn’t see this conclusion coming. The event left me questioning the entire film, wondering how all the pieces fit together.

Surely, being overlooked for an Oscar nomination, Tim Roth proves he is a layered, complex, full-fledged actor in a painful yet necessary story called Chronic (2015).

Independent Spirit Award Nominations: Best Feature, Best Male Lead-Tim Roth