Playing God *** (1997, David Duchovny, Timothy Hutton, Angelina Jolie, Peter Stormare) – Classic Movie Review 2134

The truth is out here – somewhere – in director Andy Wilson’s spicy 1997 thriller.

David Duchovny enjoys a modicum of success in this brave change-of-pace away from the X-Files, playing Dr Eugene Sands a washed-up surgeon befriended by a gangster and infamous counterfeiter called Raymond Blossom (Timothy Hutton) when he saves a crook’s life after a shooting. Hutton gets him to act as a as a ‘gun-shot doctor’ and save various low-lives who cannot risk visiting a hospital.

But danger lurks for Eugene, who has been stripped of his medical licence after performing an operation high on amphetamines, when he inevitably becomes romantically entangled with the mobster’s moll, Claire (the 22-year-old Angelina Jolie).

To call this an offbeat thriller sounds like a warning – and it is – but it manages to carve out an intriguing rut of its own with plenty of oddball characters, weird plot twists, jolting surprises and brio bursts of action.

Though Hutton overacts extravagantly, Duchovny’s right on the money in a movie commendably shot in America by a British team, with striking cinematography by Anthony B Richmond. Peter Stormare, Michael Massee, Gary Dourdan and John Hawkes are also in the cast.

It cost $12million and took back only $4million in the US. Rated R for strong graphic violence, gore, pervasive language and some drug use.

Jolie has the letter H tattooed on the inside of her left wrist, which she got when she was dating Hutton.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2134

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