Coma: A Brush with Death
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Coma: A Brush with Death is an amateur action/romance/comedy motion picture created in 2006 by a group of Sixth Form college students in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England. Directed by Jamie Flint the film utilises camera phones in order to film the movie. It is available for viewing at [link]
Storyline
The first scene opens with the main character, Cliff Hanger (Ashley Crowson), being attacked with a broom by an unknown assailant and subsequently having his head flushed down the toilet. The combination of these actions result in Cliff falling into a deep coma.
Cliff is later discovered by the cleaner who immediately informs the emergency services of the incident. When inspecting the room one could distiguish inflatable animal sex toys indictating that something terrible may have happened although there is no later reference to this.
Upon arriving at the hospital Cliffs son Dale (Nathaniel Spencer) is seen mourning his fathers condition and then taking a sip of a drink, however the resident urine doctor (played by Mark Newton) then announces that it is fact a urine sample. Upon discovering his error Dale immediately spits the urine over his paralysed father.
The next tearful scene shows the Doctor (credited as Dr. O) informing Cliff (who ironically cannot hear him due to his coma) that he has found his wife, Gladas (Tom Colley), although she has now under gone a sex change. It is followed by Gladas informing Dale that she will know become her new father.
Cliff is now able to go home, however while trying to move Cliff he suffers a terrible fall at the hands of the medical staff (this may have been a comment at the state of the NHS). Ironically the fall actually revives Cliff from his coma.
The film concludes with a duel between Cliff and his alternate gender wife, although all is eventually resolved after the intervention of their son.
Characters
Cliff Hanger (Ashley Crowson)
The films main protagonist is a MI6 agent (although this is only discovered in the sequel Coma 2: Deux Combre) named Cliff Hanger (played by Ashley Crowson). Little is given away about Cliffs character in the first film mainly due to the fact Hanger is rendered unconsious in the 1st scene by a vicious attack with a broom while using the toilet, however you do discover that he has a wife (Gladas) and son (Dale) who can be seen by his side at the hospital. Upon Cliff's revival a small insight is given to his character when he shows his disgust upon discovering his wife has had a sex change while he was comatised, this gives a slight indication that Cliff may be homophobic, although Cliff and Gladas do resolve their differences in the end, be it after a brawl.
Gladas Hanger (Credited as 'Post Op Gladas) (Tom Colley)
Gladas Hanger (played by Tom Colley) is the spouse of Cliff. Even less is known about this character although an insight into her dissatisfaction at being a woman is shown when she has a sex change into a man (the original Gladas is not shown in the first coma film). More can be concluded when you consider Gladas only felt safe enough to have a sex change while her husband was in a coma, perhaps indictating marital turmoil or that Gladas is prepared to take advantage of her husbands medical condition for her own ends.
Dale Hanger (Nathaniel Spencer)
Dale Hanger is the son of Cliff. He is shown to be terribly disraught at his fathers suffering, although Coma 2: Deux Combre explains how Dale is in fact behind the attacks. A clever twist not seen by many.
Criticisms
Coma: A Brush with Death could be criticised for its poor qualilty which makes understanding dialogue and plot very difficult, however this is due to the low quality of the camera used. Its sequel Coma 2: Deux Combre tries to address this problem.
It may also be criticised for creating immature humour from serious problems such as paralysis, domestic violence and rape (if the indictations shown in the toilet scene are to interpreted as evidence for sexual activity). The director, Jamie Flint, has cited many times that this was not the intention and the films aim was to try and educate people of these problems in a humourous way.
There a numerous mistakes throughout the entire film, most notably characters being called by their actual names instead of their characters names, this is due to the fact that the characters names were thought up during filming. Also the opening scene shows the camera zooming in on Atlanta, Georgia, USA although the 2nd film indictates that Cliff actaully resides in the UK, however there is no clear indication that the events in the two films took place in the same location.
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