Errors of the Human Body

2012
5.2| 1h42m| en| More Info
Released: 23 September 2012 Released
Producted By: Instinctive Film
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Canadian scientist, Dr Geoff Burton takes up a position at a new institute in wintry Dresden in order to contribute to their most important project—a human regeneration gene—that also has the potential to make something miraculous out of a personal tragedy that has haunted him for years.

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Reviews

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped
TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Michael Ledo Geoff (Michael Eklund) is an American genetic doctor involved in prenatal testing. He is invited to work in Germany, which he accepts. Here we meet Rebekkah (Karoline Herfurth) who worked as an intern for him, a relationship we immediately can tell was not just professional. We also meet Jarek (Tómas Lemarquis) another scientist who Geoff doesn't like for no particular reason.The story starts out very simply and then cleverly builds layers while slowly revealing the past and its relevance to current times. I liked the plot construction and its integrate weaving of the past into an ironic ending. The main problem of this tale is that the characters are boring. They lack pizazz. The whole story is humorless, unless you consider the background score as the sound cells make when they divide. The dryness of the story overwhelms the clever plot weave.Parental Guide: f-bombs, brief sex, brief nudity (Caroline Gerdolle)
dmiller-10701 This is not an epic or perfect movie. It isn't The Dark Knight or The Revenant. It is a sci-fi thriller, for the most part, I would say. It even has some goofy sci-fi parts that I could see would lower its rating. People will also complain because it is a German movie with a German actress. But I think that makes it even better. There are no big name actors that are world renowned, but the actors in this movies do a great job. Never once was I bored or not entertained, they actors told a great story the whole time. I even think the German actress made the movie even better by just being abnormal to what American audiences typically see; she made me think differently about what was going on. All the characters were unique and really made this movie what it is. The whole concept of the movie wasn't anything too mind blowing. But it did have a good plot twist or two. This movie isn't the quality of the mainstream mega movies, but it is a hidden gem that movie lovers, philosophers, and scientists alike will truly enjoy. This
TdSmth5 Some renowned but traumatized geneticist named Burton takes a job in Germany to establish some research lab there. We learn that his son was born with multiple cancers that developed in a matter of days and killed him. The disease came to be known as Burton's disease. His wife has already someone else in her life but he can't get over her. He's a complete wreck.At the institute he runs into Rebekka, a former student who surprises him with some remarkable news. She's developed an easter egg gene that re-generates tissues in amphibians. She cuts one in half and it starts uniting again. But she needs him to help her make the jump to mammals. But they also had a fling in the past.Also at the lab is another creepy researcher named Jarek who's also interested in Burton helping him. He wants to develop a mutation so that mosquitoes carry vaccines instead of viruses thus immunizing those they bite, instead of infecting them. It would be a great way to get eliminate diseases like malaria, so common in poor countries where mosquitoes abound. But because he's so creepy, acting more like a stalker, Burton doesn't want anything to do with him. But this guy is also experimenting on mice.Burton gets closer to Rebekka, who initially makes it clear that she wants the relationship to remain professional. One night he goes to her lab to leave a note. Instead he finds someone breaking into her lab and stealing a sample. He follows the guy to the mice lab where Jarek is. He uses the sample to inject a mouse. Burton decides to wait and later takes the mouse home with him and also one of Rebekka's many samples that Jarek has in the fridge.When Burton talks to the institute's director about the theft of Rebekka's work, he finds out that Jarek and Rebakka were research partners and that the easter egg discovery was a joint effort. From there on, Burton starts getting paranoid. He thinks he's being set up or used for some sinister purposes. He keeps calling his wife but now she won't talk to him. He keeps having visions of her pregnancy and the birth of the baby. While handling the mouse, it ended up biting him. He eventually ends up confronting everyone but his fate is sealed.Errors of the Human Body is a fantastic title for a movie. And the movie starts out strong giving you high hopes. But things don't at all turn out the way you hope. And that is unfortunate. The movie really takes us in a direction we don't want to go. One problem is the Burton character. He's too much of a wreck to root for. You sympathize with a him a bit, but not enough. So he makes a terrible lead character. Then there the Jarek character who's downright charicaturesque in his creepiness.The story is solid, if not excellent. And I'm giving this movie high marks for the science and the ideas. The problem is the execution. I did like the attention to detail, the little things, but overall a near fatal flaw of the movie is the European pace reduced almost to slow-motion. The movie isn't long but it feels like it's a 3 hour movie.While filmed in Dresden, a photogenic city, we get to see nothing of it. And as usual for something filmed in Germany, it's during winter. Are German actors banned by law from working when the sun shines? By their movie and TV productions, you would think that Germany suffers from an eternal winter.I'm rating this movie a bit higher than it deserves, for the main reason that it doesn't treat the audience like morons but gives it a lot to think about, and it does so until the very end.
Ordinary Review It was after watching The Call (2013) that I decided to browse through Michael Eklund's filmography hoping to find other portrayals of deranged characters. Errors of the Human Body is a title that immediately hooked me and I wanted to know more. The poster looked marvelous and it seemed to have won some awards and nominations so I decided to see it. Doctor Geoff Burton was once renowned and a beacon of hope to the medical field, but a rare genetic condition that led to his son's death ruined him.On the verge of being fired he accepts a job offer in Germany. The transfer was supported by a young female doctor who was once Burton's intern and with whom he had a liaison. Once he arrives, he discovers what Rebekka is working on: a way to have cells regenerated extremely fast. However, the processes which work in amphibians seems bound to failure when tested in mammal embryos. This is until Jarek, Rebekka's previous partner on the project, tries it illegally on a mouse. Geoff, who was following the scene, steals the mouse in either desperate scientific interest or a desire to protect Rebekka's project. From there on, Geoff's mental health begins to deteriorate as he enters a conflict with Jarek and is plagued by his past. I was quite pleased with what strikes first in the movie: the constant ambient low tune of disturbing music and the quality of the medical environment which was not portrayed in the typical scientific way, but was filmed in a way that made it beautiful. The story is quite simple overall but the flashback of the past along with the deterioration of everything around Geoff makes the movie really smooth. Geoff Burton's character reminded me in many ways of the protagonist in The Machinist (2004). Eklund really shines in this deranged guilt-ridden persona, although he might now be typecast as the new crazy actor (that'll give Michael Shannon a break). The scene at the party with loud electronic music, bright neon colors and costumes is really a pleasure to see. In the background, a great deal of moral issues are dealt with, but the first plane is always about Geoff. The film depicts a bare, rough and industrial vision of Germany which seemed to be in perfect harmony with the isolation of the main character. I couldn't help but wish there was more that was done with the tools we were shown. In the end it felt like a really lonely and caustic movie. At least it managed what Splice (2009) didn't; to make research in medicine look good. I wish there was more and maybe this is where the movie feels a little short in its unfolding. I think I felt really similar after watching Antiviral (2012) where I loved the world I was thrown in and it was visually astounding, but the story left me wanting for more. I liked: Constant background noises and music. Geoff and Eklund's acting. Exploration and depiction of guilt. I disliked: There was more to do, more to say. Some scenes seemed unrealistic--for example, a chase scene with a mouse is far stretched-- the protagonist was after all a top notch scientist. 72/100 I'm really going to look forward to future movies by Eron Sheean. I like his directorial work. I would recommend this to those who enjoyed Antiviral (2012) and also maybe Upstream Color (2013).

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