A MISTAKE – Review by Nadine Whitney
New Zealand director Christine Jeffs returns to home soil for her medical drama A Mistake starring Elizabeth Banks as Liz Taylor, a skilled surgeon in a city hospital whose life and career are thrown into a downward spiral after a mistake is made in a surgery opens her up to unwarranted professional scrutiny.
Liz is called to assess a young woman, Lisa Williams (Acacia O’Connor) with extreme abdominal distress. Liz and her registrar, Doctor Richard Whitley (Richard Crouchley) diagnose some form of abruption possibly causing sepsis and rush the patient into surgery. In the operating theatre is the anaesthetist, Alex (Emmett Skilton), surgical nurse Robin (Mickey Sumner), and Richard. Watching the operation is unit manager Alistair Collins (Joel Tobeck).
Liz starts the laparoscopic procedure and finds the patient has a widespread infection from an IUD. She hands part of the surgery to Richard who nervously takes it on. Trying to make him more comfortable, Liz uses casual language with him, telling him to push down harder on a piece of surgical equipment, “to give it some welly.” Richard pushes too hard and nicks the patient’s vena cava causing a massive bleed Liz must staunch by opening the abdomen. It could have been quite serious, but Liz handles it professionally and the patient comes out of the procedure stable. Richard is devastated by his error, but Liz makes him tell Lisa’s parents (Rena Owen and Matthew Sunderland) that Lisa is stable, and the operation went well. Lisa is transferred to the ICU where Liz checks in on her later.
Overnight Lisa declines and suffers a heart attack from septicaemia. Questions begin to be asked – especially by the antagonistic head of surgery Andrew McGrath (Simon McBurney) who thinks women are too emotional to be doctors and resents Liz based on her skill, gender, sexuality, and refusal to sit down and shut up when he tells her to.
Lisa’s parents and the mortality and morbidity hearing want an explanation – Liz tries to calmly give it. Yes, a mistake was made. Did the complication cause Lisa’s death? Unlikely as the sepsis was advanced. Who is responsible for the mistake? Liz owns it as Richard was under her guidance.
News of the incident spreads through the hospital and despite Liz having witnesses to her professionalism in Robin and Alex, doubts begin to spread about her competence. The situation is further exacerbated by a new initiative where the government will publish a surgeon’s success and failure rate so the public can make educated choices on which surgeons they choose. Liz argues (to McGrath’s displeasure) in front of the presenting speaker that the initiative will punish more experienced surgeons who take on more difficult surgeries and the rating system will stop surgeons from trying to save patients who have higher risk factors. New Zealand is too small and there are already too few qualified specialist surgeons.
Things go from bad to worse as Lisa’s parents go to the newspaper claiming Liz is responsible for their daughter’s death. The hospital suspends her from laparoscopic procedures while she’s under investigation. Robin, Liz’s girlfriend, leaves her. Richard is becoming more distressed and unsure of himself and Liz’s attempts to support him aren’t working. Her house has wasps in the walls. McGrath is smugly waiting for an opportunity to humiliate her.
A Mistake lurches from one bad thing to the next bad thing shot by John Toon in washed out tones which could be generously described as a sympathetic background to Liz’s increasingly miserable life. It would perhaps be more engaging if we knew something about Liz beyond her professional career. Her social interactions are limited to her friend asking if she will look after her dog while she moves in with her new boyfriend and mostly work-related conversations with Robin. Elizabeth Banks’ confusing New Zealand accent aside, there is little for her in the role. She makes a couple of speeches about “the people in the system” and reacts to the pile on of horrible things happening around her that she feels she could be tangentially (or fully) responsible for.
A Mistake isn’t helped by the fact much of the story is nonsense. A published list of surgeons’ mortality rates for “rankings” that anyone can have access to is a fantasy. A surgeon who had witnesses proving she did nothing wrong wouldn’t be suspended. Investigations need strong evidence of negligence before they are considered let alone undertaken. And, unless the hospital in which Liz works has approximately twelve patients or fewer, little else could account for the near silence of the environment.
A Mistake lacks a reason to invest in and stick with the protagonist. Fundamentally inert and heavy handed relying on unlikely scenarios to create dramatic tension.
