Threshold

Released in the US two years after its Canadian premiere, THRESHOLD predates the artificial-heart-transplant mania which swept the country in the early 1980s. Dr. Thomas Vrain (Donald Sutherland) performs the surgery, throwing his hospital's board up in arms; Dr. Aldo Gehring (Jeff Goldblum), the heart's inventor, glories in the media attention he receives; and Carol Severance (Mare Winningham), the recipient, has trouble dealing with not being totally human. Sutherland turns in a commanding performance, benefitting from an engrossing script and able direction. American distributors ignored the film until Barney Clark's real-life artificial-heart operation provided...