Threshold is engrossing viewing, a film I wished I had watched in it's release to video in 1985. Donald Sutherland is such a fine actors, and turns in what is a fine and flawless performance, as a legendary heart surgeon, the best, and you look at him as a heart surgeon, not an actor, he's that good. When approached by a young brilliant med student, (Goldblum- very good, though can't match Sutherland as no actor can here ) who's developed the first artificial heart transplant, it becomes a last resort for a needy young girl (Mare Winningham, the second great performance) who desperately needs a heart, as everything else is useless, like parts that don't work. The frightening aspect here, is of course, that the artificial heart hasn't been tested, if only on a monkey, where it led us to believe Goldblum, might be lying about this, as if Sutherland really wanted a confirmation from Winningham. But if this was the only chance of survival, regardless of it's high risk factor, you'd take it, where in the aftermath here, we're kind of left with an open, optimistic, if unsatisfying ending as in the aftermath of story. Before Winningham's troubles with getting a new heart, almost mid movie, we are subject to one of Sutherland's prize patients (Lerner, having a bad stroke of luck, with a bad matching heart) which kind of propels Sutherland, and co, in taking the risk with Winningham. This movie maintained my interest, all the way, through with it's interesting handling of story, and Sutherland's lifestyle, plus Goldblum's intriguing, avid young character, and Lerner had his moments. I enjoy this movie more, every time I see it, where this is another 80's view you should seek out, if even just to see Sutherland's engaging brilliant performance, in this smart, engaging medical drama. Truly unforgettable musical score.

In the ten years or so before this film's release there was a flurry of high-profile breakthroughs in cardiovascular surgery. Heart transplants, bypass surgery, mechanical hearts, animal hearts in human bodies. Names like DeBakey became household words.One might imagine this low-budget movie to be a sensationalized cashing in on the popularity of the subject, but it isn't that at all. It's a slow-moving and thoughtful story of a young woman's having an artificial heart implant, the original bionic woman. And it's no small thing. Not to the administrators, not to the inventor, not to the surgeon, and certainly not to the patient.The surgeon is Donald Southerland and he's already world famous, the kind of guy who strikes awe in others at medical conventions. And Southerland's performance, like those of the other principals, is unimpeachable. He's the kind of guy you want for your surgeon when your time comes -- always relaxed, confident, sympathetic but honest, and eyeball-coagulatingly competent. Marcus Welby without the small-town cornball crap. When he finishes the climactic two-and-a-half hour operation, he goes to his office, props his feet carelessly on a table, sighs, and watches TV. The majority of us would be out getting juiced up or sobbing in a church pew. The best thing about Southerland's character is his lack of arrogance. He's not a narcissist despite the standing ovation. And the actor is able to project this, the kind of self-regard that comes not from pride but from satisfaction at having done a good job and helped someone else in the process. I've seen standing ovations for professionals and the recipients were all visibly moved more than Southerland, who seems surprised. Vincent Scully got such an ovation before his last class at Yale. I never got a standing ovation, but I got several good laughs. Once at a late-night lecture on sociological theory I spoonerized the term "structural-functional." And once at a convention, a stranger approached me with a shy smile and said, "You're (insert my name here), aren't you?" I blushed slightly and admitted to being that personage and asked if he was familiar with my work. "No, I don't know you," he said, "I just read your name tag." The impudent pup. A standing ovation and five dollars will get you a free cafe mocha at Starbuck's.Where was I? Oh, yes. The movie. Jeff Goldblum is the inventor. And man is he a different type. Where Doctor Southerland avoids publicity and hossanahs from the press, knowing that something could go South at any moment, Goldblum takes eagerly to the airways. He's not an egotist either, but a visionary. You know, the kind of guy who intuits the future and carries on about "new paradigms." Southerland becomes angry and tries unsuccessfully to keep Goldblum quiet. The script has a surgeon ask Goldblum if he is a doctor. "Yes -- umm, biology." The surgeon says contemptuously, "Biology. That explains it. Treat some patients for a while." Unfortunately some MDs do have this attitude. If you have no clinical practice you don't know anything. Which is rather like Arnold Schwarzenegger saying that if you haven't lifted weights you don't know anything.The patient who receives this plastic/metal contraption is Mare Winningham, who is quite good, and who is exactly right for the part. She's young, but not too young. Pretty, but not heartbreakingly so. Winsome but not pathetic. After the operation, when it is clear that she will recover, she lies in bed scared to death, frightened because if she goes to sleep the heart might stop. What a nice touch, and nothing much is made of it.That brings us to the aspect of the film which many people will probably find daunting. It's slow. Nobody shouts angrily at anyone. There is no fist fight. There isn't an underground chamber where comatose bodies are suspended from cables and their organs harvested.The central figure in the drama is the heart itself and we hardly know anything about it. We have no idea how it works. We hardly even SEE it.We get to see a lot of other surgical-type things though -- angiograms and that sort of stuff, the kind that Linda Blair underwent in the course of "The Exorcist." Interesting details about an operation in which somebody gets an artificial valve. I always wondered how they got that little ring in there and now I have some idea. The sutures in this case are too long and Southerland casually rebukes his scrub nurse with a soft wisecrack, "What do you want me to do, sew it up from the other room?" So there's no blood, no violence, no sex, nobody poisons anyone else or does anyone in a laundry room. Instead of grand opera we're given a small leisurely story of a successful artificial heart implant. The Big Themes we might expect from a script written by a committee of MBAs are only suggested. "Will I be the same?" "The religious people are after me." The extension of those glimmers of doubt or of definition is left up to the viewer.Recommended -- if you're patient.

Amazingly to me, this film appeared on cable very often when my child was an infant with congenital heart defects. The makeup giving Mare Winningham the look of oxygen deprivation was very realistic and gives the viewer a picture of the "dusky" skin tone of some heart patients. The restraint of the Vrain/Carol relationship was right on, and the peripheral but agonized part of the parent was poignantly depicted by Carol's father. The film is almost a relief from the typical "dramatized" film about illness. Heart difficulties are inherently dramatic to the lay person (perhaps not to doctors, though) and need no melodramatic treatment. The understatement, the lack of statement all serve the subject well. The cold, orderly world of the (urban, state-of-the-art)hospital that contains so much extraordinary work comes across beautifully in this film. I'm glad others appreciate it.

I wasn't really looking forward to seeing this film, and only ended up watching it because it stars Donald Sutherland and Jeff Goldblum, two of Hollywood's most talented and inimitable actors.In the end, though, I glad I did watch it - THRESHOLD turned out to be an engaging and absorbing drama. It's a fictional account of the first ever artificial heart transplant, and feels so realistic that you'd never guess it was made two years before the artificial heart became a reality.Donald Sutherland's first-rate performance is probably the highlight of the movie - when he's this good, you wonder if there's anyone he couldn't act off the screen. A then unknown Jeff Goldblum holds his own admirably as the idealistic young doctor who invented the artificial heart, and the film features some impressive camerawork, most notably the opening tracking shot.All in all, it helps if you're a Sutherland fan, but it's not essential; this is one of those movies whose relaxed pace, absorbing atmosphere and strong performances will have you hooked right from the start.