GROSS ANATOMY. Directed by Thom Eberhardt; written by Ron Nyswanor and Mark Spragg; produced by Howard Rosenman and Debra Hill for Touchstone. Starring Matthew Modine, Christine Lahti and Daphne Zuniga. Rated PG-13.
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Gross Anatomy isn't the "beach party" movie it's title seems to promise. The phrase instead refers to the course first-year medical students take, the one that involves the dissection of cadavers.
Following a group of these students, and one in particular, through the school year, Gross Anatomy is more than a little reminiscent of The Paper Chase. Here we have would-be doctors, though, instead of lawyers.
The story is absorbing, even though it leans a bit too far toward the melodramatic at times. And the characters are interesting, if, in some cases, not very well developed; we can begrudge them a few moviegoers' tears.
Modine, as the central character, Joe, is quite outstanding. His previous roles in Birdy, Vision Quest and Full Metal Jacket have all been intriguing and well-played. But if Gross Anatomy is successful, it may push him over the line dividing the merely interesting actors from the real movie stars.
Lahti is the anatomy professor, a strong, but occasionally vulnerable, woman who is professionally, rather than romantically, interested in the movie's leading man. What a novel idea! Most movies seem to think it's impossible for an attractive man and an attractive woman to spend any time together without falling in love—or at least into bed.
Of course, someone does fall in love with Joe. It's Laurie (Zuniga), one of his lab partners. And here is where Gross Anatomy drops the ball and fails to become a really first-class romantic picture.
Zuniga is capable of being just as charming and as interesting as Modine (she was in The Sure Thing, a more successful screwball-comedy type of romance, opposite John Cusack). But for some reason the script won't let her here.
Laurie is pretty enough, but she doesn't show us enough personality to explain why Joe is so attracted to her. Accept the contrivance that he is taken with her, and their scenes together are nice examples of a modern relationship trying to accommodate two sets of ambitions as well as two sets of feelings.
It's just too bad that the duo is so out of balance, charisma-wise.
October 25, 1989