This turn-of-the-century medical drama with sociopolitical underpinnings pays attention to period detail, but bogs down in a slow pace and bland characters.
CENTURY begins on New Year's Eve, 1899. Paul Reisner (Clive Owen), a doctor and son of Jewish immigrants, leaves Scotland for a position in a new medical research institute in London. Paul's dedication to medicine is established early on, as he argues over discredited treatments and quickly
becomes the most highly-regarded researcher at the institute. However, after he disagrees with Professor Mandry (Charles Dance), head of the institute, over a friend's new discovery--insulin--Dr. Reisner is suspended. Paul turns for help to Clara (Miranda Richardson), a lab worker he has been
seeing. They begin an affair as he tries to get back his position. Paul soon discovers that Mandry has been sterilizing poor women in order to control the population and sets out to expose this unauthorized exercise in eugenics. As a result the institute is closed. The film ends on New Year's Eve,
1900 with Mandry disgraced and Paul about to open his own practice with Clara.
CENTURY looks good. Much effort went into making the period-accurate sets, but similar care should have been spent paring down the verbose script by playwright-turned-filmmaker Stephen Poliakoff (CLOSE MY EYES). While the actors attempt to breathe life into it, there are too many solemn lectures
about medical breakthroughs and the wonders the future will bring. Much of the surgical jargon comes across as too technical for mainstream audiences (the description of insulin is so convoluted that a voiceover tries to clear it up).
Of the actors, Charles Dance stands out in his portrayal of Mandry, a man who even at his worst inspires admiration in Paul. Clive Owen, on the other hand, takes the script's solemnity to heart and his portrayal of a second-generation-immigrant maverick healer never stands out from the turgid
material. (Nudity, sexual situations.) leave a comment
