Taking on race, 'Lord' operates with restraint
HBO's "Something the Lord Made" takes a bit of medical history and turns it into a classy but predictable tale of strained race relations in the 1930s and '40s. Alan Rickman plays Alfred Blalock, a white doctor who revolutionized cardiovascular surgery by saving "blue babies" from circulatory failure. Mos Def plays Vivien Thomas, his brilliant black assistant, whose quiet research and support were largely responsible for Blalock's success. Together the two men from different backgrounds tug on one or two heartstrings as they open chests to cure a few ailing hearts.
The bitterness in the movie, which premieres tomorrow night at 9, comes from the fact that Thomas doesn't automatically get the credit he deserves, because he is black. Unable to go to medical school after losing his savings in a bank crash, he works his way up from Blalock's janitor to his lab technician and right-hand man. He doesn't get paid accordingly and he doesn't get the glory; he can't even enter their Johns Hopkins office building through the same door. But his love of medicine sustains him, for the most part, even when his wife (Gabrielle Union) urges him to be more ambitious. And he readily turns away from the faces -- both black and white -- that look askance at his white lab coat.
The sweetness in the based-in-fact movie comes from the quiet, flawed understanding between the two brainy men. Their intense connection is tacit, as they brainstorm and experiment on dogs as preparation for their surgical procedures on humans. (By the way, the movie's laboratory operating scenes can be trying for dog lovers.) In the safety of their lab, teasing out solutions to heart problems while Blalock drinks coffee and Thomas draws on his pipe, they are equals and friends.
The actors play out this gentle bond beautifully. Very little sappiness creeps into their scenes, as they ignore the limitations others are putting on their relationship; they just want to save lives. Mos Def is engaging as the introverted, focused man who is slowly learning to get what he deserves, and Rickman portrays the perfect mix of gruffness and dependency, egotism and respectfulness. Like much of the movie, their scenes together aren't lively and dramatic so much as dignified and restrained.
There's a history of race-themed movies that give us white heroes coming to the aid of blacks, including "To Kill a Mockingbird," "Mississippi Burning," "Ghosts of Mississippi" and "Amistad." "Something the Lord Made" adds a few layers to that formula, since it's clear that Blalock and Thomas are rescuing each other, and that Thomas is helping himself when he begins to ask for what is rightfully his. "Something the Lord Made" plays out exactly as expected, right up to the emotional finale, but along the way it offers some admirable flourishes.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. 
