Plot: Follows Dr. Sandeep Kapoor after his life is turned upside down when he is implicated in the death of his former patient, model and reality television star Anna Nicole Smith. Set against the height of the early 2000s tabloid era, the film chronicles Kapoor’s fight to clear his name as paparazzi descend on his office, police raid his home, private journals are leaked, and every aspect of his personal life becomes public. With the guidance of respected attorney Ellyn Garofalo, Kapoor must navigate a high-stakes drug conspiracy trial while confronting the intersection of celebrity, justice, politics and personal redemption.
Review: When it comes to the pop culture moments that stick in your mind from the early 2000s, the untimely passing of Anna Nicole Smith may not be the first that comes to mind. Seeing the trailer for Trust Me, I’m A Doctor certainly brings the zeitgeist flash the former Playboy Playmate back to the forefront, but the frenzy surrounding her death and the trial that followed has not had the same impact as others from the same period. It was still a shocking story with many layers that had not been explored before outside of documentaries and memoirs. Thane Economou’s feature directorial debut has been noted more for Abbie Cornish’s transformation into Anna Nicole Smith and concern that it takes a comedic angle on a celebrity death, but Trust Me, I’m A Doctor is not at all exploitative. Instead, this is a drama that embraces the weird and surreal orbit of the events while giving us the story of Anna Nicole’s personal physician, who was pulled into the downward spiral after her demise. Led by Kal Penn and Linda Hamilton, Trust Me, I’m A Doctor is different than what I was expecting.
Told with a blend of flashbacks and fourth wall breaks, Trust Me, I’m A Doctor opens with Dr. Sandeep Kapoor (Kal Penn) going through discovery with his attorney, Ellyn Garafolo (Linda Hamilton). Kapoor, a quiet and introverted physician, finds himself taking over a Los Angeles medical practice that happens to have Anna Nicole Smith (Abbie Cornish) as a patient. Following the previous doctor’s regimen of methadone to treat her, Kapoor gets pulled into her social circle and finds himself struck by her energy and attractive qualities. Accompanying her to a gay pride , the closeted Kapoor enjoys being around his patient even though he notices strange behavior from her, her attorney and lover Howard K. Stern (David Julian Hirsch), and her photographer and other lover, Larry Birkhead (Ted Jefferies). Kapoor also takes on Anna Nicole’s son, Daniel (Jordan Kronis), as a patient. Growing to enjoy his interactions with Anna Nicole, Dr. Kapoor goes against some of his better judgment while still maintaining as much professional decorum as possible. That is, until she dies.
Trust Me, I’m A Doctor features much less of Abbie Cornish transformed into Anna Nicole Smith as you may think. The screen time for Cornish amounts to less than twenty minutes of the whole film, which focuses almost entirely on Sandeep Kapoor making some atrociously dumb decisions. If it wasn’t for the fact that the movie is based directly on Kapoor’s memoir of the same name, I would be shocked to believe someone could be as stupid as a board-certified physician. From trusting people implicitly to do the right thing to taking files home and forgetting about it, Kapoor does everything short of saying he broke the law to give fuel to the authorities, including a determined medical investigator (Al Sapienza), everything they need to take him down. As the film progresses, Trust Me, I’m A Doctor takes a broader look at the political implications of the trial of the three people suspected of enabling Anna Nicole Smith’s death, which goes all the way to the candidate for governor, Jerry Brown.
Kal Penn has played characters based on real people before, but this is the first time it is inspired by a living person. Affecting Sandeep Kapoor’s quiet manner and speech patterns, Penn plays a frustratingly likable person. Anyone would be infatuated with celebrity, but Sandeep Kapoor seemed to struggle with whether he wanted to or not. Penn does a nice job with the fourth-wall-breaking narration, giving us a sense of just how bizarre the situations were, but it lightens the material a bit. Linda Hamilton is also excellent in her first feature film based on a true story. This is one of Hamilton’s strongest and most substantial performances in quite some time after recurring roles as military officials on Resident Alien and Stranger Things. Hamilton plays Ellyn Garafolo as a skilled attorney who knows her way around the courtroom and delivers some rousing moments, taking down witnesses. The chemistry between Penn and Hamilton is present as the two share the most screen time and have as much fun with the material as you can without disrespecting the fact that the trial involves the deaths of both Anna Nicole Smith and her son, Daniel.
As a feature debut for Thane Economou, who wrote the screenplay based on Sandeep Kapoor’s book, Trust Me, I’m A Doctor handles the balance of funny and serious pretty well. The characters speak naturally and include pop culture references here and there, including an unexpected connection between the events of the film and director Jon Favreau. Economou uses some archival footage and tangential story elements to flesh out just how odd Anna Nicole Smith’s life and death were. Keeping the screen time for Abbie Cornish limited allows her performance to be respectful of Anna Nicole Smith rather than a caricature, but Cornish is fully transformed, and I would have loved to see more of her role. Keeping the story focused on Sandeep Kapoor offers some nice moments at home with his two sons, as well as with Kapoor’s parents, which gives the film some sweet moments. With some nice musical cuts peppered throughout and a balance of actors playing real people like Harvey Levin, the world of the early 2000s is very tangible.
Trust Me, I’m A Doctor is the most fun you can have with a movie that chronicles the death of a real person while handling that respectfully. With one of Kal Penn’s strongest performances, plus Linda Hamilton at her best, this is a movie that exceeded my expectations. With the actual Sandeep Kapoor making a brief cameo at the end and some archival footage playing over the credits, you can see that Penn’s portrayal is not based on physical similarities to his character but rather who he is as a person. You will not believe how misguided his decisions were, but you can understand and empathize with them. Trust Me, I’m A Doctor is not an Anna Nicole Smith movie, but one that features her and that allows the focus to stay on those who surrounded her, some of whom took advantage, and others who just orbited her larger-than-life personality.
Trust Me, I’m A Doctor opens in theaters on October 16th.
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