#TIFF26: “THE SURGEON” REVIEW

By David Baldwin

Eliza (Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh) has just retired after decades of service as a surgeon. Unsure of her next move, she is abducted one morning and forced at gunpoint to perform surgery on…someone. And when she tries to push back, her captors are none too thrilled.

THE SURGEON is a wild ride, full stop. It wastes no time getting Eliza captured and prepped for surgery, and then gradually unpacks the events that led her there alongside her trying to survive through increasingly violent means. And since she knows so much about the human body, she basically narrates what pain she is going to inflict before she does it – and basically sees her captors not so much as humans as she does nerve endings, muscles and bones. It’s a cold, calculated thread to balance, and Yeoh does a terrific job doing it while maintaining the audience’s sympathy for her plight. She is not a bad person; rather she is a pragmatist who is married to her former job and sense of duty to protect her patients. She gets a few quips along the way too and a bewildering obsession with 70s and 80s rock (specifically Thin Lizzy?!).

Having just as much fun is Martin Freeman who plays against type here as the leader of the gang who kidnaps Eliza. He is downright menacing throughout his runtime, and you can almost see the glimmer in his eye from how much joy he is getting from not playing the unassuming nice guy.

If I hold anything against the film (Written and Directed by Canadian Roshan Sethi, M.D. as he is listed in the credits) is that it climaxes too soon and then just keeps going. I understand it has only a 92-minute running time yet it feels padded out longer than it needs to be, and has too many cuts to black that just end up making THE SURGEON feel a lot less polished than it should. It’s a nasty little thriller as it is, but had the potential to be even stronger.

THE SURGEON screens at TIFF ‘26:

Sat. Sept 12 at 8:30 PM at Royal Alexandra Theatre

Tues. Sept 15 at 9:20 PM at Scotiabank Theatre

Fri. Sept 18 at 9:10 PM at Scotiabank Theatre