Kal Penn plays Dr. Sandeep Kapoor in this subpar biopic, which has an off-putting and dismissive attitude about the late supermodel’s death
I don’t know if anything more can be said about Anna Nicole Smith, the supermodel, actress, reality tv star and pop icon who died from a combined prescription drug overdose in 2007. But if there is, writer/director Thane Economou’s new film “Trust Me, I’m a Doctor” doesn’t say it.
“Trust Me, I’m a Doctor” isn’t a biopic about Anna Nicole Smith, it’s a biopic about being in her orbit. Kal Penn stars as Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, who wrote Smith’s prescriptions, which were heavily scrutinized after her death. Smith was a celebrity, so, of course, there was a media blitz. Dr. Kapoor became tabloid fodder, his life was placed under a microscope and he was eventually put on trial along with several other people who, perhaps, could have prevented Smith’s tragic death.
As a biopic, it’s bog standard, ripped from the headlines material, with a smattering of fourth wall breaks to keep it punchy. “Trust Me” claims, in no uncertain terms, that Dr. Kapoor made mistakes but he wasn’t a bad guy. At one point, his father tells him, “You’re not a liar or a fraud, you’re a human being,” which is a nice thing to hear if you’re his son. The rest of us know human beings can also be liars and frauds. Quite a lot of them are.
Kal Penn plays Dr. Kapoor with a deer-in-the-headlights performance, befitting of a man shoved into the spotlight, adrift in a chaotic situation. It’s supposed to be a sympathetic portrayal, and it probably would have been if “Trust Me, I’m a Doctor” didn’t also include a scene where his lawyer, Ellyn Garofalo (Linda Hamilton), tells him a jury will go easy on him if he presents himself as a good doctor, as well as a befuddled idiot.
In a cleverer film, this would knowingly subvert the entire enterprise, and make us question everything we’re told. But Economou’s film also bends over backwards to introduce Dr. Kapoor while he’s saving an elderly woman’s life, and then follows that relationship until she’s on her deathbed, still thinking about his problems, and hoping he’s found innocent because he’s just so wonderful. It makes sense that “Trust Me, I’m a Doctor” is on the doctor’s side. It’s based on his autobiography after all. But it’s completely unconvincing. Maybe Dr. Kapoor didn’t do anything legally wrong, but this film doesn’t make him very sympathetic, which plays like an accident.
What really makes Economou’s film sour is that Smith, played by Abbie Cornish, is treated so very badly, and not just by her entourage. “Trust Me, I’m a Doctor” makes Smith out to be a compulsive temptress, if not an outright manipulator, whose substance abuse and erratic behavior destroyed everyone she ever knew. The film cares about her collaterally damaged hangers-on, even the ones who are clearly a-holes, but has upsettingly little interest in Smith herself, who’s more like the Maltese Falcon than a human being. Everyone wants her, and what they want from her reveals a lot about them, but she’s still just an object to be coveted, hoarded and exploited, even by the film itself.
Anna Nicole Smith famously modeled herself after Marilyn Monroe, adopting the actress’s iconic look and persona. Like Monroe, Smith died very young after being treated very badly, and like Monroe, she continued to be treated badly after her death. This film is the latest example. Smith’s life was certainly unusual, and aspects are worthy of criticism, but she was also a human being and nobody in “Trust Me, I’m a Doctor” seems to care about that. Not even the filmmakers. Her life was a convenience to everyone involved, her death was the opposite, and everything else about her is chalked up to her alluring mystique. So whenever “Trust Me” claims Dr. Kapoor was a real person with feelings who didn’t deserve to have his life torn to shreds by the media, it reads as hypocrisy and makes everyone involved look bad.
Everyone, that is, except Linda Hamilton, who makes a convincing case that she should star in her own legal drama, starting yesterday. Hamilton radiates confidence and composure, infusing Garofalo with the type of respectability that borders on star power. Of course, casting an actor with star power has that effect. “Trust Me, I’m a Doctor” is too generic a production, and too misguided in its approach, to have any serious awards prospects but hopefully Hamilton, at least, will turn some heads and top new shortlists for other, better projects. She may be best known for the “Terminator” movies and “Beauty and the Beast,” but she’s a multifaceted performer and this film proves — as if we needed more proof — that she’s overdue for a career resurgence.
“Trust Me, I’m a Doctor” is in theaters now.
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