(This review is written as an unofficial part of the AliventiAsylum 2nd Anniversary Guilty Pleasures Writeoff.)

THRESHOLD is a cutting-edge-technology movie that has provided me with many moments of guilty pleasure. Thomas Vrain (Donald Sutherland) is a California heart surgeon who
is attempting to develop an artificial heart. Mare Winningham plays Carol Severance, the patient eventually chosen under emergency circumstances to receive the heart, developed after Jeff Goldblum signs on as a publicity-hungry researcher eager for glory. (What makes this artificial heart unique is that it's allegedly the world's first self-contained artificial heart. Now, it must be understood that someone else has actually implanted his own version of the self-contained artificial heart, over a decade after this film was making the rounds of our American cable channels, making this movie a work of complete fiction.)

OK - it's a lousy movie. The script happens to be the worst part in terms of continuity gaffes - someone who is a medical resident shows up a few scenes later, purporting to visit Thomas Vrain at his hospital and wanting a job as an attending or something. Vrain himself smokes, several scenes after warning a transplant candidate of the dangers of this addiction for heart patients in particular. One is also led to believe that Vrain comes to the decision to use the artificial heart only after the death of the transplant candidate (who became a recipient prior to his demise), despite the fact that he'd been working on the technology seemingly forever and ninety-six years before said patient's death.

In addition to the aforementioned continuity gaffes, the woman who is apparently either Vrain's nurse-practitioner assistant or his secretary - I believe this character is portrayed by Canadian actress Lally Cadeau, but the credits do not make this point clear, and the script doesn't even come out and say what this woman does - comes off as being officious and (it rhymes with witch, and starts with the letter "b," but no software will allow me to type it out). She disappears entirely during the latter half of the movie, without explanation - another massive continuity gaffe.

But then, that's what makes this movie interesting and a guilty pleasure for me.

I also enjoy ripping apart Jeff Goldblum's performance; toward the end of the movie, as this character realizes that Vrain is not as much of a publicity-hungry glory junkie as is he, Goldblum portrays him in progressively more of a "stiff" mode, while earlier on in the film, Goldblum provides more of a "space cadet" feel to the character. It is also obvious, particularly at the beginning, that Goldblum is merely reciting lines, rather than actually portraying a character.

I even enjoy smiling at Mare Winningham's performance as Carol Severance. However, she seems to me to be more uncomfortable and shy in front of the camera, as if she had never appeared before in a movie, in her professional capacity as an actress. Also, it is clear that she is making some minimal effort to bring Carol Severance's fears to the big screen. It can be frightening to be the first at anything, and when one adds to that the fears any patient has upon release from the hospital after such a drastic procedure, I could at least understand why Winningham took the approach she did, even if I don't think she succeeded at convincing me she was Carol Severance.

This is a great "guilty pleasure" movie precisely because the continuity gaffes alone make it great viewing. However, I regard it as one of those films that's so bad it's good, making it good primarily for Ed Wood-style bad-film addicts and others who prefer their films awful.

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age