Hippocrates: Diary of a French Doctor

A sobering look at the bureaucratic trials and life-and-death decisions rookie doctors face on their daily rounds.

While the story arc of Hippocrates is not especially remarkable, the film works best in its depiction of life in the bowels of the hospital, which the public never visits.

Thorny issues regarding patient-caregiver relationships, cost-vs.-care tensions, and morality-vs.-rules dynamics are handled with a minimum of didacticism by Lilti, whose handheld camerawork provides a measure of immediacy without calling undue attention to itself.

Hippocrates loses its nerve with a facile climax that betrays the depth of what precedes it, yet there are few things more fascinating than when competent professionals disagree, especially if we appreciate the source of their impasse.

While it has considerable charms, Hippocrates is just too predictable.

Hippocrates unfolds pretty much like an average episode of “ER,” though with more French flag waving and less storeroom romancing.

The result may honour the daily reality of medical professionals – the finale’s a credibly fractious staff meeting – but it makes for a patchy, hesitant dispatch, more “er …” than ER.