Vital Signs (1990 film)

A group of 3rd year medical students has to come with terms with the personal and professional tension that goes on in a teaching hospital.

• Adrian Pasdar as Michael Chatham
• Diane Lane as Gina Wyler
• Jimmy Smits as Dr. David Redding
• Jack Gwaltney as Kenny Rose
• Laura San Giacomo as Lauren Rose
• Jane Adams as Suzanne Moloney
• Tim Ransom as Bobby Hayes
• William Devane as Dr. Chatman
• Norma Aleandro as Henrietta Walker
• Bradley Whitford as Dr. Donald Ballentine
• Lisa Jane Persky as Bobby
• Wallace Langham as Gant
• James Karen as Dean of Students
• Eric Zoltaszek as Student

The film was originally to have been about a country doctor.{{cite news|last=Kempley|first=Rita|title=REVIEW|date=13 April 1990|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1990/04/13/review/642addf7-f8ac-4a3d-a15d-537c73fcb3ca/|access-date=21 September 2015}}

Vital Signs received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 43% of 7 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review.{{cite web|title=Vital Signs|access-date=1 November 2022|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/vital_signs/|website=Rotten Tomatoes}}

Leonard Maltin gave the film one and a half stars and wrote in his review: "Watchable, but of absolutely no distinction; stick with The New Interns, where you can at least compare the acting styles of Dean Jones and Telly Savalas. Smits effectively projects quiet authority as the surgeon instructor."{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F60TAwAAQBAJ&q=vital+signs+leonard+maltin&pg=PT2485|last=Maltin|first=Leonard|title=Leonard Maltin's 2015 Movie Guide|year=2014|publisher=Penguin|isbn=9780698183612}}

Valerie Schoen of the Chicago Tribune also gave the film a star and a half and wrote, "I have to find Vital Signs dead on arrival."{{cite news|last=Schoen|first=Valerie|title=Poor Prognosis For 'Vital Signs'|date=13 April 1990|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1990/04/13/poor-prognosis-for-vital-signs/|access-date=21 September 2015}}

Jay Boyar of the Orlando Sentinel gave the film two stars, calling it "weak - very weak."{{cite news|last=Boyar|first=Jay|title='Vital Signs' Could Use Malpractice Insurance|date=18 May 1990|newspaper=Orlando Sentinel|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1990/05/18/vital-signs-could-use-malpractice-insurance/|access-date=21 September 2015}}

Janet Maslin of The New York Times also gave the film an unfavorable review, writing that the film "never has much energy of its own. The film's very basic problem is that it contains no surprising turns, and that its characters are familiar through and through."{{cite news|last=Maslin|first=Janet|title=Vital Signs (1990) Review/Film;'Vital Signs,' On Doctors In Love And Conflict|date=13 April 1990|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C0CE0D9133BF930A25757C0A966958260|access-date=21 September 2015}}

Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "The movie has everything, which may be its problem. This brisk, whipped-up show has no rough edges."{{cite news|last=Wilmington|first=Michael|title=MOVIE REVIEW : A Slick 'Vital Signs' Races Past Substance|date=13 April 1990|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-04-13-ca-1103-story.html|access-date=21 September 2015}}

Jay Carr of The Boston Globe criticized the film's screenplay: "Vital Signs has a much better title than last year's med school outing, Gross Anatomy. But it's not a much better movie. In fact, this coming-of-age-in-med-school film is DOA, sunk by a banal script, the kind that insists that every crisis contain the seeds of its convenient resolution."{{cite news|last=Carr|first=Jay|title='VITAL SIGNS': SCRIPT GOES FLAT|date=13 April 1990|newspaper=The Boston Globe|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8169241.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419065855/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8169241.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 April 2016|access-date=21 September 2015}}

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a positive review: "The movie never strays far from camp, but on its own shameless terms, it delivers."{{cite magazine|last=Gleiberman|first=Owen|title=Movies|date=27 April 1990|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|url=http://www.ew.com/article/1990/04/27/vital-signs|access-date=25 December 2015}}

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released the film on DVD on June 7, 2005.[https://www.amazon.com/Vital-Signs-Adrian-Pasdar/dp/B0007ZEON2 Vital Signs DVD release] The film was released on Blu-ray on October 1, 2013, by Anchor Bay Entertainment.{{cite web|url=http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Vital-Signs-Blu-ray/80557/|title=Vital Signs Blu Ray}}

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|0100879}}
• {{rotten-tomatoes|vital_signs}}
• {{Mojo title|vitalsigns}}

{{Marisa Silver}}

Category:1990 films

Category:1990 romantic comedy-drama films

Category:20th Century Fox films

Category:American romantic comedy-drama films

Category:1990s English-language films

Category:Films directed by Marisa Silver

Category:Films set in hospitals

Category:Films with screenplays by Jeb Stuart

Category:Films scored by Miles Goodman

Category:1990s American films

Category:English-language romantic comedy-drama films