FLATLINERS (2017)

Studio:       Columbia Pictures
Director:    Niels Arden Oplev
Writer:       Ben Ripley, Peter Filardi
Producer:  Laurence Mark, Michael Douglas, Peter Safran
Stars:     Ellen Page, Diego Luna, Nina Dobrev, James Norton, Kiersey Clemons, Beau Mirchoff, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Kiefer Sutherland

Review Score:

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Summary:

Experiments intended to explore the afterlife torment five medical students with haunting visions of their past sins.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Distracted by her phone while driving, Courtney Holmes crashes into a truck and rolls her car off a bridge, killing her younger sister Tessa in the passenger seat.

Nine Years Later – Now a medical student interning at Trinity Emanuel Medical Center, Courtney sets up a clandestine experiment in the hospital’s basement hoping to map the process of what happens in the brain during death. Courtney convinces two of her classmates, arrogant Jamie and sheepish Sophia, to stop her heart for one minute and then resuscitate her so she can have a near-death experience in the afterlife.

When they are unable to bring Courtney back, Sophia summons gifted student Ray to the basement. Ray resuscitates Courtney. Having followed him to the basement, Ray’s romantic interest Marlo stumbles upon the experiment as it concludes.

Courtney, Jamie, Sophia, Ray, and Marlo regroup at Courtney’s apartment to review the data and to hear about Courtney’s out of body experience. The next day, everyone is astonished to see drastic improvements in Courtney’s memory, which includes eidetic recall of medical diagnoses and the ability to play the piano again after 12 years. However, Courtney also begins experiencing haunting visions of Tessa while alone.

Anxious to duplicate the benefits seen in Courtney, Jamie insists on flatlining next. While dead for two minutes, Jamie envisions himself riding a motorcycle with his ex-girlfriend Alicia to her apartment.

The five friends celebrate at Courtney’s place after successfully resuscitating Jamie. Courtney asks Jamie if he saw anything disturbing as they discuss their experiences.

Jamie’s intuition drastically improves. However, he begins seeing haunting visions of Alicia.

Sophia’s mom prevents Sophia from attending the next experiment, forcing her to study instead. Marlo flatlines for three minutes, during which time she encounters a dead man in a pool of jellyfish where she is also accused of being a murderer. After a close call, Ray manages to bring Marlo back.

Sophia shows up late. Frustrated by her mother, she demands to flatline immediately. While dead, Sophia relives a moment from high school when she hacked academic rival Irina Wong’s text messages and sent nude photos of her to all of their classmates.

When two custodians come down the elevator, Jamie pulls a fire alarm to create a distraction. Sophia is resuscitated immediately and the five friends flee the building in Marlo’s car to avoid security.

Everyone celebrates at a waterfront party. Courtney is drawn away by another vision of Tessa.

With her inhibitions released, Sophia brings Jamie home for sex. When her mother interrupts, Sophia defiantly proclaims that she is moving out.

Marlo confesses to Ray that she killed patient Cyrus Gudgeon, who was admitted for a jellyfish sting, on an ER rotation. Overlooking Cyrus’ prescriptions, Marlo administered a conflicting medication that killed him. Marlo tells Ray that she saw Cyrus when she flatlined. Ray and Marlo have sex.

Jamie returns to his boat. He sees a vision of Alicia sobbing in his bed and also hallucinates a crying baby.

Courtney calls Jamie to tell him that she saw her dead sister. While waiting for Jamie to come over, Courtney records a confessional video. Tessa’s ghost appears, torments Courtney, and then pushes her off the fire escape to her death.

Their teacher, Dr. Barry Wolfson, informs Jamie, Sophia, Ray, and Marlo of Courtney’s death. The four friends realize they have to destroy all evidence of the experiment, prompting Marlo to retrieve Courtney’s cellphone from the morgue. While in the morgue, haunting visions of Cyrus torment Marlo once again.

Alicia returns to haunt Jamie on his boat. The vision stabs Jamie in his hand, inflicting a real knife wound.

Jamie, Sophia, Ray, and Marlo review the confessional video on Courtney’s phone. When they hear Courtney confronting Tessa offscreen, Marlo theorizes that their sins are coming after them. Jamie confesses that he got Alicia pregnant, but skipped out on the day he was to meet her at an abortion clinic. However, Alicia is still alive, leading him to theorize that whatever is happening is feeding off their guilty consciences. Sophia confesses to shaming Irina Wong. Ray insists there is a scientific explanation for everything going on. Marlo fears that whatever killed Courtney will kill them too.

Ray discovers that Marlo falsified Cyrus Gudgeon’s autopsy report to protect herself. Ray tells Marlo that she has to confess to the dean.

After another haunting vision, Sophia goes to see Irina. Sophia tells Irina what she did and apologizes. Irina forgives her.

Believing they can stop the hauntings if they accept responsibility, Jamie tracks down Alicia. Jamie discovers that Alicia kept their child, meaning he now has a son named Alex. Jamie offers to make amends.

Visions of Cyrus Gudgeon strangling her cause Marlo to crash into an outdoor café. Marlo texts Ray with a worrying message. Ray rallies Jamie and Sophia and they find Marlo in the basement having flatlined herself. While the trio frantically works to resuscitate her, Marlo confronts Cyrus’ ghost, who drowns Marlo.

Jamie and Sophia give up on saving Marlo. Ray tries one last time. In her vision, Marlo encounters Courtney. Courtney tells Marlo that she must forgive herself. Ray brings Marlo back.

Jamie tells Ray he plans to remain local to be closer to Alicia and Alex. Marlo confesses to the dean and ends up on probation. Ray and Marlo throw Courtney’s laptop off a bridge.

Jamie, Sophia, Ray, and Marlo meet at a bar where they used to go with Courtney. They hear the pianist playing the song Courtney played after her flatline experience. The four friends toast to Courtney.

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Review:

Earlier this week I happened to be thumbing through a collection of recent-ish movies I’ve yet to watch and stumbled across the 2015 “Poltergeist” remake.  For a brief moment, my mind went white with confused incredulity, fighting to find the memory that would disprove a momentary doubt that the movie actually existed.  Then I remembered the remake being generally received with such passive disinterest, it’s no wonder I never bothered giving it a go, much less couldn’t recall it was made.

I suspect “Flatliners” 2017 will book passage on that same boat of “oh yeah, I forgot they remade that” indifference before sailing into a storm of complete apathy.  Not because it is particularly poor.  The film functions as competent filler for a basic cable channel in need of vanilla sci-fi/drama that plays to a PG-13 crowd.

It’s that the movie dilutes opportunities for originality with substandard suspense, and the low stakes story delivers a great deal of dullness in the thrills department.  That’s not necessarily a recipe for total failure, although those are ingredients for a forgettable film.

Ben Ripley’s screenplay, or what ends up on the screen anyway, operates under the same setup as Peter Filardi’s 1990 script.  Five medical students, distinguished by stereotypically disparate personalities yet united by “Grey’s Anatomy” attractiveness, conduct a clandestine experiment to stop their hearts and explore the afterlife.  When they are subsequently resuscitated, the aspiring doctors discover that haunting visions have followed them back to the land of the living.  Now they are tormented by waking nightmares of secret sins seemingly pushing them toward a permanent death.

The movie’s not-so-secret sin is that it doesn’t do much to advance or even contemporize the original film.  Scuttlebutt says test screening trepidations led to watering things down for simplicity’s sake.  Kiefer Sutherland’s cameo that could have connected “Flatliners” to its 1990 namesake became a speaking extra role as a negligible inclusion.  A freaky side effect where each flatliner returns with a different mental enhancement earns a few mentions, yet no deeper side story development.  Sony apparently preferred a safety net of straightforwardness over taking the premise anywhere crazy or creative, resulting in reediting for maximum blandness.

Basically, the biggest difference between the two films comes down to cast.  Think of “Flatliners” 2017 like a cover song playing a melody note for note with the same sounds and tempo, except the band has changed.  Do you like Ellen Page, Diego Luna, and Nina Dobrev?  Better yet, do you prefer them to Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, and Kevin Bacon?  The former three at least feature enough to be worth a marginally intriguing watch for their fans, if nothing else.  And there isn’t much else.

Slowing the pulse as hard as anything is a pace that waits until the halfway point has passed before truly turning the mood macabre.  Even then, certain sequences of tension never work, like when ghostly visions repeatedly haunt one young doctor on his boat.  These scenes come before the revelation of what he did wrong in his past, which means we know he can’t die unless exposition arrives first.  This leaves “Flatliners” with a lot of empty threats, and these setups are filled with basic “boo!” moments that haven’t squeezed out a squeal from audiences since black-and-white films were still in style.

The fact that I’m only 80% of the way toward my usual word count yet my notes are already exhausted reveals quite a bit about the film’s substance and lasting impression.  “Flatliners” isn’t terribly shabby overall.  It simply isn’t special in any regard either.  So if this is all there is to it, then the takeaway question becomes, why bother Xeroxing the first “Flatliners” at all, especially when the original holds up on its own?

Review Score:  55

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