Paper Mask – 1990 | 118 mins | Drama, Thriller | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Based on a John Collee novel and directed by Christopher Morahan, this taut medical thriller takes a menacingly cynical look at the National Health Service. Produced on a small budget and largely overlooked when it was first released, this eerily plausible thriller effectively plays on public paranoia. McGann is terrifyingly plausible as the unscrupulous impostor always on the edge of being exposed, Tom Wilkinson excellent as a suspicious superior and Amanda Donohoe credible, if not at her best, as the gullible nurse turned lover.

When an ambitious hospital porter at a dreary London hospital, Matthew Harris (Paul McGann), witnesses the death of a young doctor in a car crash he steals his papers and assumes the bogus identity of Dr. Simon Hennessey. Matthew attends an interview the dead man had scheduled and manages to get hired as a doctor in the casualty department of the Royal Clifton Hospital in Bristol, despite the reservations of suspicious Dr. Thorn (Tom Wilkinson). Nurse Christine (Amanda Donohoe) believes it’s only his nervousness which makes him “forget” the most basic procedures.

Christine quickly falls in love with the charming charlatan but even her help cannot prevent his lack of experience inevitably resulting in the tragic death of a patient. At the subsequent coroner’s inquest, Christine takes the blame for the accident and Matthew is cleared of any blame. But an acquaintance from his past appears and Matthew has to resort to murder to continue with his deception.