Rent Trauma Centre (2019)

Trauma Centre review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

There’s something that seems fitting about late-stage Bruce Willis being in a hospital. Think about it: He’s played characters that have undergone tough ordeals with plenty of encounters with terrorism and hostage negotiations. One would think he’d be a bit of a battered and bitter mess after so much action. Maybe there’s something that could be explored if he were in such a setting. Oh, wait, no, I’m sorry, I got my notes wrong here. Willis doesn’t play someone IN the trauma center. He’s a cop assigned to protect someone in the trauma center. Okay, well, business as usual, I suppose. Another dry action picture, another paycheck for the aged action icon long past his prime.

Please try to stay awake while I describe this film and please don’t read if operating heavy machinery. Madison Taylor (Nicky Whelan) is a young woman with the misfortune of being injured in a scuffle of corrupt cops. For her own protection, Steve Wakes (Bruce Willis) is the cop placed in charge of making sure she survives to be a witness. But the corrupt cops she ran across, Pierce (Tito Ortiz) and Tull (Texas Battle), are eager to make sure she doesn’t talk by venturing into the hospital to kill her. Typically, Willis would go on the hunt for these bad guys but since the budget on this picture was most likely low, it is Taylor who must defend herself alone in the hospital as cops come to finish the job.

As you may have guessed, this is one of the low-key Willis pictures where he is used more for the name than the action. He shows up, babbles some lines, maybe gets in on some of the action, and then leaves for another action picture where he plays a cop, ex-cop, gangster, CIA agent, army veteran, or any professional that’ll eventually lead him to punching or shooting someone. The exceptionally sad part of this film is that Nickey Whelan is struggling to hold her own in a picture that does her no favors and is clearly far more talented than Willis. Her actions have an air of desperation and anxiety, where as Willis resigns himself to being cold and distant from this picture, almost as if he doesn’t care about anything anymore. Does even like being in movies? Has his role as an actor turned into just a humdrum 9-to-5 job, punching the clock to sometimes punch bad guys?

This is so depressing. Let’s forget the film for a moment and theorize what a film of an elderly Bruce Willis in a Trauma Center might actually be like. Heck, call it Die Hard 6 if you have to considering Die Hard 5 was so far removed from Die Hard’s premise you could make any film. Imagine a film where Willis could still be the kick-butt action star but also be posed as more vulnerable and unable to cope with his age and experiences. He could still punch and shoot people but feel a little something more from it. It could be anxiety, depression, anger, anything! Just some emotion rather than just showing up to look like a bald lump who seems like he gave up acting long ago.

There’s so much that could be explored with Trauma Centre that all gets swept under the rug. The theme of bad cops is tossed out quick because Willis is a good cop. The lacking healthcare system isn’t given any focus, nor is the legal system that would most likely allow these bad cops to get off free. A mindless die-hard Willis fan may remark that a film like this shouldn’t have to touch on such controversial topics. Pardon me, but I feel a film should touch on something, even if it’s just mindless action. And if Trauma Centre can’t deliver on that or even provide capable enough fight sequences for Willis to show off he’s not over the hill yet, what does it have left to offer? A mirror, perhaps, for how bored Willis looks in this movie.