Doc Martin (2001)
Doc Martin tells the tale of Martin Clunes' character in the film, in the months leading up to the Saving Grace story. Martin Bamford is a heart-broken London obstetrician, in a jealous rage after he finds out that his wife has been sleeping with three of his buddies. He escapes to a small Cornish fishing village, which he grows surprisingly attached to, and is extremely reluctant to return with his cheating wife when she comes to pick him up. Although he has only been looking for a week's R & R, Dr Bamford stumbles across a network of secrets in the village of Port Isaac, and finds himself embroiled in the most exciting scandal the village has seen for centuries.
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After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.
This first prequel to the Doc Martin character in Saving Grace is pretty good if you can get past the awful sex scene about a third of the way in, the squeamish bits, and the verbal litter (which is always a bummer).If you enjoy stories about folks who are able to get away and rethink their lives, this one fits the bill. Would have liked to see the Doc not be quite so accommodating to his wife though.The cast is great and the location is spectacular. Lots of characters to root for.I watched Saving Grace so long ago that I don't remember the original Doc Martin character and am eager to go back and see that show again. On the other hand, I watched the second prequel, Doc Martin and the Legend of the Cloutie, and it was AWFUL. It was really really stupid.
My uncle recently recommended I see the British show "Doc Martin". Well, his suggestions aren't usually too bad, so I decided to start at the beginning--or at least what I thought was the beginning. It turns out this character had first appeared in the Craig Ferguson film "Saving Grace"--though I didn't know it until after I saw "Doc Martin". So guess what is next on my Netflix queue?As for this film, I have been warned that the character is not exactly the same one from the later television series. It's played by the same actor (Martin Clunes) and he's got the same name, but I have been warned that the stories aren't exactly the same in the movies that preceded the TV show. That often happens when movies are later adapted to a TV series, though after seeing "Doc Martin", I cannot imagine changing it very much because the film was nearly perfect!The film begins in London. Dr. Martin is a successful obstetrician and s satisfied with his life. However, he's blissfully unaware that his wife is cheating on him...with several men! When he discovers, he takes off for Cornwall. After all, as a child he'd visited there and found it very relaxing--and he certainly needs to relax and clear his head.What happens next is very strange and one of the subplots involves a strange person who leaves jello* molds on people's doorsteps with nasty and incriminating photos buried within them! There is much more to it than this...but it's probably best you just see it for yourself.So why did I like "Doc Martin" so much? Well, the writing was just lovely and the story really made you care about the doctor and this strange little town full of interesting characters. Additionally, the direction and acting were also nice. It's a gentle meandering sort of film--and one that seemed very charming and made me want to see more.
Doc Martin Bamford, an amiable, dope-smoking GP in a Cornish fishing village, appears in the movie "Saving Grace" and two made-for-TV prequels that explained who he was and how he got that way. This first time out, he's an obstetrician not a surgeon, he doesn't lose it at the sight of blood, he's a beaming, rubber-faced cherub not a scowling, sharp-tongued Aspie--that's Doc Martin Ellingham, as thoroughly reimagined for the long-running series by Dominic Minghella (whose name, as somebody on an IMDb bulletin board pointed out, is an anagram of "Ellingham"). Too much info? Doesn't matter. This "Doc Martin" is the first of the TV prequels, not as clever or as original as the series, perhaps, but perfectly charming and involving all the same. Good work by Tristan Sturrock (he's in the series as well) as a laid-back lobsterman and Neve McIntosh as a witchy tavern singer (she's not, more's the pity, eh?).
Before "Doc Martin" became a popular series, this movie came out to set the stage; somewhat.Martin Clunes plays Doc Martin, but he is very different from the stuffed shirt, grouchy Doc in the series. This one is a "people person" and is married to a cheating wife (she has affairs with each of this 3 friends!). When he finds out, he heads to a little seaside village that he knew as a kid. We still see Doc Martin, but he drinks and smokes cigarettes, both the legal and illegal type.As a side story, the village folk are plagued with an anonymous poison pen writer. The poisonous clues are put in "jellies," which to Americans look like molded Jello, and placed at the doorstep. The villagers point the finger at each other, then at Martin, until he saves a few of them and earns their trust. Eventually they do solve the mystery and unmask the culprit.At least this part is true to the Doc Martin series to follow. This Martin stays in a suit, even when he's on a fishing boat. He's also a brilliantly smart doctor and able to save a life with makeshift tools. The villagers are quirky, sweet, and close knit.Check out the hilarious scene where Doc is slicing into fish with glee and shouting at them. His cheating friends should be very thankful he only takes his anger out on the dead fish.