Movie Review: You Don’t Know Jack
Suicide is a hot button issue, and doctor Jack Kevorkian makes people even more uncomfortable offering doctor-assisted suicide to over 100 terminal and chronically ill patients who wish to die. Kevorkian’s blunt assessment of the right to die with dignity causes controversy with anti-suicide advocates and gains him a national spotlight in the process. Kevorkian faces five trials and protesters harassing him before he finally serves time in jail.
This HBO movie follows the life of Jack Kevorkian, aka, Doctor Death, showing a side most people have never seen of the controversial doctor. The movie is touching, humorous, and opens the door wide open on the topic of the right of a patient to die in dignity on their own terms. Al Pacino won a well-deserved Emmy for his portrayal of the doctor, and Adam Mazer won an Emmy for the screenplay. Pacino is stunning as Jack Kevorkian, disappearing into Kevorkian’s quirky character, humor, and eccentricities. The rest of the cast is outstanding, with excellent performances by Brenda Vaccaro as Jack’s sister Margo, John Goodman as Jack’s long time friend Neal, Danny Huston as Kevorkian’s flashy lawyer, Geoffery Fieger, and Susan Sarandon as a leader of the Hemlock society, Janet Good. Barry Levinson does a remarkable job in direction and the screenplay by Adam Mazer is fascinating.
You Don’t Know Jack is must for Pacino fans, this is a movie you won’t want to miss, put it on your must see list.
2010. Directed by Barry Levinson. Starring Al Pacino, Brenda Vaccaro, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, and Danny Huston.
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