Errors of the Human Body’s summary sounds more like a thriller, but it is not. Errors of the Human Body is a modern tragedy about an American scientist who moves to Germany to escape personal failings and find something scientifically redemptive from the death of his son. Errors of the Human Body is guilty of using a man’s workplace as the stage to resolve personal relationship struggles like I Origins and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, but is a step above those movies since it is more meditative and consciously deliberate in its pacing, flashbacks and purpose.
Errors of the Human Body should not be set in Germany. I think that filmmakers need to officially put away the movie premise of questionable experiments in Germany. At least Errors of the Human Body wasn’t consciously trying to make allusions to Nazi scientific experiments like Anatomy or The Human Centipede, which I have never seen and have no plans to see, but still by setting the events in Germany, you would have to be ignorant of a lot of history to not make the connection, intended or not.
Dear Errors of the Human Body, I wonder if the bald, albino like European guy with intense eyes is a bad guy-asked no one. It is so cliche. Tómas Lemarquis actually suffers from Alopecia and may not be an albino, but still I feel bad that he has to be a stereotype to pay the rent. Errors of the Human Body also appeared to put the main character in precarious, lonely atmospheres, but nothing cliche happens so I suppose that I should be thankful for that restraint.
The main problem with Errors of the Human Body is a story telling foible. I thought that a pivotal plot twist was revealed earlier than it was during a scene when the Smurfette scientist shows him her special project. I almost rewinded the scene to find out details, but reassured myself that it would be repeated later on. I was wrong. The crucial plot twist is revealed at the end of Errors of the Human Body, and it does have the desired effect, but perhaps the film should have kept her work more vague and the audience should assume that the cliche villain is stealing from her, but not actually understand WHAT he is stealing.
Also what is it about placing scientists in costume parties disguised as skeletons? I Origins and Errors of the Human Body use that setting. Please comment if you know any others. I think that Errors of the Human Body wears it better.
I was disappointed that the American scientist was not actually acting like a scientist in the way that he was handling the research: no gloves, storage containers, bringing it home. Also if you thought that you were infected with something, and you were a scientific genius, would you immediately go to the most inhabited places with the highest potential to infect someone else, especially someone who has no resources and would not be missed or noticed if he wandered around the city inadvertently infecting other people. Either he has to be some special type of narcissistic jerk or so emotionally distraught that he has become reckless. I didn’t buy either. I’m not a scientist, but if I thought that I was infected with a deadly virus, I would quarantine myself and leave detailed instructions on the door so no one would get unwittingly infected, especially if that person is some dog’s human.
Errors of the Human Body is extremely flawed. If the filmmaker had excised the thriller elements and kept the mournful scientist in a lab struggling emotionally and using two other scientist characters as the personification of his more emotionally vulnerable versus logically ruthless sides, Errors of the Human Body could be a masterpiece. After seeing that other viewers thought Errors of the Human Body was extremely boring, I think that I may be in the minority for wanting it to be less sensational.