The Dose (2020) User Reviews

An interesting debut feature on a controversial subject and in a thriller format

[danybur · 7/10 · 23 December 2020]

Marcos (Carlos Portaluppi) has been working as a nurse in an intensive care unit (ICU) for twenty years. He is a responsible person who likes his work and devoted to his patients. But he is also the one who sometimes, faced with the irremediable, makes controversial decisions.

After entering the unit Gabriel (Ignacio Rogers, from Esteros), a new, friendly and eager to learn nurse, the changing relationship between the two nurses will dominate the development of the film.

What begins as a hospitable drama, slides towards the thriller with a touch of terror as the relationship between the two protagonists becomes rare.

The painting of the ICU ward and the hospital dynamics is very successful, with its gloomy atmosphere and its limited gallery of patients. Portaluppi composes his lonely character very well, who is destabilized by a whole scenario of years, both at work and personally.

Notable is the work of Rogers, a specialist in multi-layered characters. As for the veteran cast of hospital managers, the generational difference with the protagonists is noticeable in their way of acting.

Director Martin Kraut very well doses the gradual change in atmosphere (and genre) of this his debut feature, perhaps revealing influences from Polanski's cinema in its presentation of oppressive and paranoid elements.

In short, a solvent debut in thriller format with very good leading performances on a controversial subject as a trigger, with the merit of never losing sight of the personal drama of its protagonist, a fundamental foundation of any genre film.

Chilling tale

[laduqesa · 7/10 · 10 March 2022]

The iMDB storyline on the main page gives the whole story away so what follows is in no way a spoiler. The film needs a certain suspension of what we know as to the methods of euthanasia used by each nurse - common sense tells us one is far more likely to be more effective. Nonetheless, the premiss led to a satisfying chiller.

New nurse Gabriel arrives at the ICU and immediately turns procedures and methods upside down. Despite having supposedly recently qualified he seems to have more knowledge and skills than he should. Marcos eventually gets suspicious of the new nurse and investigates and what he turns up makes for a grim story.

As the film progresses, Gabriel's insidious influence pervades the ward and the hospital itself. Marcos finds himself in the nightmare position of needing to cover up lapses and deliberate acts while under suspicion himself. Tensions rise between them until Gabriel seems to have the whole hospital under his sway.

The denouement was gripping and timely.

The film is only 90 minutes long which makes for a taut thriller. There wasn't an ounce of fat in this production. The characters were finely drawn, amoral Gabriel and repressed Marcos in particular. A definite recommendation.

Incredible performance by Portaluppi in this intense thriller...

[wildsparrow16 · 9/10 · 11 June 2021]

This was a psychological thriller with the most sympathetic protagonist I have seen in years (Portaluppi). He works hard at his thankless job, goes home to his starkly humble apartment and eats his meager meals. You find yourself really rooting for him and wanting good things for him - but alas, his nemesis enters the scene and things begin to spiral at a Hitchcockian pace. This was something different and not to be missed.

A double dose.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 10/10 · 3 August 2021]

With the chillingly brittle Argentina Horror Leni (2020-also reviewed) being my introduction to the Soho Horror Film Festival, I was thrilled to find that for a weekend dedicated to titles by LGBT film makers,the event would be presenting another movie from the country,leading to me taking a dose for a viewing.

View on the film:

Walking down the hospital corridors with Marcos on his return to filming for the first time since the short Que miren (2012), writer/director Martin Kraut & cinematographer Gustavo Biazzi cut into a icy atmosphere of long, distorted wide-shot cleansed in a cold, clinical blue tint which along with reflecting the sterilized surroundings, also exposes the detached state Marcos suffers when his attempt to raise alarm at the hospital falls on death ears.

Carrying the years spent working on the wards,and his secret of performing euthanasia on seriously ill patients, Carlos Portaluppi gives an absolutely superb performance as Marcos, whose suspicions that a another member of staff is killing patients for pleasure,is expressed by Portaluppi in subtle changes to his facial expression and body language, as Marcos tries to keep underhand his attempt to gather evidence against his fellow staff member.

Whilst he has an angelic name, Ignacio Rogers gives a terrifying turn as Gabriel, thanks to Rogers performing the dialogue in a cool, calm manner which highlights Gabriel's attempt to normalize the visible pleasure he shows when ending the life of a patient, and holding a psychopathic smile, which stops his bosses from asking him questions about the increased number of patient on his ward.

Spending time following the daily routine on the ward before Gabriel's arrival, the screenplay by Kraut holds back from picking up the scalpel,which injects an in-depth characterization into the gripping Thriller elements that seep into the hospital as Marcos digs into Gabriel's background.

Sitting with Marcos performing euthanasia on a patent, Kraut stays away from giving easy answers, via examining the differing moral positions between both staff members,as Marcos catches Gabriel giving a patient a dose.