Paper Mask

Paper Mask is a 1990 British drama film directed by Christopher Morahan and starring Paul McGann, Amanda Donohoe and Tom Wilkinson.[1] The screenplay concerns a hospital porter who decides to impersonate a doctor in a busy hospital. The film was based on a 1987 novel by John Collee, who also wrote the screenplay.

Plot

Mathew Harris is a porter working in a busy hospital in London. While playing his banjo in his bedroom, he dreams of bigger and better job opportunities, having been previously dropped out from studying biology. One evening, he witnesses a car accident beside a local pub, where the driver of a car is killed in a collision with a lorry. Harris learns that the man, named Simon Hennessey, was a doctor at the hospital where he works, and had been applying for a residency at another hospital in Bristol. Harris takes the dead man's mail, fills out a job application, and applies for the job himself under the late doctor's identity. After studying medical books and assisting and observing procedures at his hospital, Harris applies and is accepted. Before he leaves, he goes to the swimming pool where his friend Moran is. Explaining he has decided to travel abroad, he hands Moran his silver cigarette case as a gift. He quits his job and settles in Bristol where he, as Dr. Simon Hennessey, is assigned to a busy Accident & Emergency (A&E) department.

Despite his lack of experience Harris completes his first few days without any major incident, however is questioned by his superior regarding the low standards of his patient record keeping. He meets and is soon aided by a friendly A&E nurse, named Christine Taylor. She soon becomes smitten with Harris, helping him through his busy first days. After saving the life of a woman in A&E, Harris becomes more competent and confident with his new job, but he also becomes more and more arrogant and corrupt by his newly acquired power and skill. Soon, both Taylor and Harris begin an affair, which complicates things. When a patient, who is also the wife of the chief medic, dies under Harris' care, he is charged with negligence. At his hearing, Taylor takes the blame for the incident, which gets her suspended.

Things take another turn when one day Harris unexpectedly meets Moran, who has decided to study as a nurse. When Harris takes Moran to a remote area and confides in him about his scam of impersonating a doctor, Moran takes it very badly and threatens to report Harris to the hospital authorities. Harris follows Moran and pushes him off a cliff, thus resorting to murder to keep his job. However, Moran survives the fall critically injured, but long enough to be brought into the hospital for treatment. When trying to identify Moran, a nurse finds the silver cigarette case, which has Mathew Harris engraved inside and assumes that it is him. Harris tries again to kill Moran in A&E, and succeeds by injecting a blood bag for Moran's emergency surgery with 20% potassium chloride.

Meanwhile, Taylor finally figures out Harris' charade, after seeing the real Dr. Simon Hennessey's gravestone in London, while visiting her recently deceased father's grave in the same cemetery. On doing so she confronts Harris, however he convinces her into identifying Moran as Matthew Harris, so he can be legally declared dead and continue his impersonation of Dr. Hennessey. Taylor does so, and Harris is again free and clear.

Due to growing negative views of him, Harris decides to transfer to another hospital in nearby Salisbury. He has however also agreed to stop pretending to be a doctor and move to London with Taylor. On setting off by car on the local M4, rather than continue to London where she is waiting, he takes the turn to Salisbury leaving her all night in front of the meal she had prepared for them both. In the final scene, Christine picks up a phone and debates with herself on whether or not to call the police to report Harris' charade (but which will also implicate herself as well), we see the murderous and amoral Harris settling into his new job at another hospital to continue his charade of impersonating a doctor.

Cast

Release

The film was screened at the 1990 Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine des Réalizateurs) at Cannes Film Festival.[2]

References
  1. http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/430247
  2. "Quinzaine 1990". quinzaine-realisateurs.com. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
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