By: debbie lynn elias
Always a treat is actor Michael Eklund and for Eklund fans, the past year has been an ongoing Christmas present. Starting out 2012 with The Divide, written by Eron Sheean who now brings us ERRORS OF THE HUMAN BODY, we also saw Eklund in a second apocalyptic thriller, The Day in which he co-starred with Ashley Bell. Reteaming with Bell for 2013’s Marine 3, he can also currently be seen in The Call with Halle Berry. And now we have ERRORS OF THE HUMAN BODY. Unlike anything we have seen from Eklund in the past – and something that more than redeems Eron Sheean for The Divide – ERRORS OF THE HUMAN BODY is a thought-provoking, slow burn thriller that speaks to the moral conscience within each of us when it comes to science versus ethics and playing God.
Geoffrey Burton is an acclaimed research scientist. At an emotional crossroads, he has suffered the greatest loss of all – the death of his newborn infant son. Making the death even more difficult is that his son died of Burton’s Syndrome. Here he is, a geneticist, and he can’t even save his son. Spiraling downward, his wife leaves, his marriage disintegrates and he cuts himself off from the world, devoting his time to researching Burton’s Syndrome. Trying to put his life back together, Geoff accepts an offer from a prestigious laboratory in Dresden, Germany that will allow him to continue his own research while working on another interesting project, one helmed by his one-time student and former lover, Rebekka.
While the Institute wants Geoff’s help in furthering the development of the regenerative “Easter Gene”, Rebekka wants to rekindle their past affair. What no one tells him is that there’s a rivalry over developing the Easter Gene. Seems that it may not be all Rebekka’s work. She had another “liaison” with a former researcher, Jarek, who may be doing his own testing and research on the gene. Is Geoff there to help Rebekka? Jarek? Or merely the Institute who stands to make a fortune if they can perfect the gene and its transmission before anyone else? And just what are acceptable protocols to perfecting the process?
Written and directed by Eron Sheean, who is helming his first feature here, ERRORS OF THE HUMAN BODY is high concept and intelligent sci-fi medical thriller that is as engrossing as it is compelling and provocative. Described by Michael Eklund as a “little mad man of a writer”, Sheean employs a slow-build through story, character and at times minimal dialogue, raising topical and timely discussion on morality, playing God and the battle between science and ethics. While there is some minor action, adding to the mix is plenty of intrigue with facets of disease, infection, mutation and, of course, espionage.
Pushing ERRORS OF THE HUMAN BODY beyond a typical medical thriller such as the Gene Hackman/Hugh Grant vehicle Extreme Measures, are the performances, and none more than Michael Eklund. As Geoffrey Burton, Eklund brings an arsenal of emotion to the table. “Geoff is more introverted, there’s more going on inside of him. All I knew is that if I felt it in my real life then it would translate onto film. . . All I had to concentrate on was the character that I was playing which was a character basically obsessed with details of the disease that killed his child. And then how he lost touch with his humanity which destroyed his marriage and in the long run, his sanity, throughout the film. I just had to attack the internal struggle that the character was going through.”
Capturing the cold, haunting sense of Dresden, fueling the authenticity and chilling atmosphere is not only Anna Howard’s cinematography with a desaturated icy white on white bluish tone, but the research facility itself. According to Eklund, “We shot 80% of the film in the Max Planck Institute. They had quarantined areas that we weren’t allowed to go in and they made sure that we knew which areas those were. The best think about the Institute is that they were so warming towards us, they opened up their doors to us and just let us come in and make out movie. It was so nice of them to do that. To be in the real space, the real environment that the movie takes place in helped me a lot. The background actors in the film are the scientists going about their daily routines. They were the extras. If you see a scientist in the background walking around, that’s them working. We were shooting our movie around them while they were handling deadly viruses and whatever else they were working on. It made it very easy for me to feel like I was in the true life environment that Geoff Burton was in.”
As the antagonist, Icelandic actor Tomas Lemarquis is brilliant as Jarek. Brash, bold and cold, his on screen persona mimics his own odd, cold, crazed, bald-headed look. Able to unleash rage and frenetic unease at the drop of a hat, it comes as no surprise to learn that the real lab mice being used in the film actually did bite Lemarquis as they react to a handler’s energy. Rik Myall is a scene stealer. Portraying the Institute director, Samuel Mead, he serves as the narrative connective tissue between the audience and science. Karoline Herfurth dazzles with devious innocence, making Rebekka a perfect emotional foil for Eklund’s Geoff Burton.
As intense and emotionally draining for us as an audience as it is for Michael Eklund’s Geoffrey Burton, there is not a moment that Eron Sheean isn’t making us think, contemplate and question life and ourselves with ERRORS OF THE HUMAN BODY.
Written and Directed by Eron Sheean
Cast: Michael Eklund, Tomas Lemarquis, Karoline Herfurth, Rik Myall
