The medical dramedy Code 3 is a bit like if the Emmy-winning series The Pitt had an episode that stepped outside the titular emergency room and just focused on the paramedics who rush patients to Dr. Robby and his crew. Like that show, the film envelops us in the world of these workers as they navigate the perpetual pains of their profession, mainly associated with the build-up of emotional trauma from the horrors they’ve seen. Granted, there’s more humor here, and it’s more of the fourth wall-breaking variety than interpersonal chatter, but director Christopher Leone’s aim remains to put us in the shoes of the medical community’s most unsung heroes. Leone penned the script with Patrick Pianezza, who worked 12 years as an EMT and brings to the screenplay the kind of world-weary wisdom you can only really get from firsthand experience.
Code 3 takes place over the final 24-hour shift of 18-year veteran paramedic Randy (Rainn Wilson), who gets a surprise job offer from a medical insurance company after a seemingly disastrous interview. He’s much overdue for a career change, beyond burned out and suffering panic attacks in a job where most people don’t make it past 5 years. After he gets the call, Randy is ready to leave right away but his dispatch manager Shanice (Yvette Nicole Brown) tasks him with showing the ropes to ride along trainee Jessica (Aimee Carrero) on his final day. Along with Mike (Lil Rel Howery), the only driving partner who’s been willing to put up with Randy’s surly disposition over the years, the trio zoom across California highways responding to all manner of non-stop emergency calls and try to keep their heads on straight in the process.
During his 9-season tenure on The Office, Rainn Wilson got plenty of opportunities to talk directly to the camera and Code 3 makes quick work of handing him the reins with an opening voiceover. “So…how’s your life goin’?” he asks, as we see an ambulance blaring past numerous cars en route to a crime scene. “I am your best friend on your worst day,” he continues, although his tone doesn’t exactly convey the geniality and inspire the assurance one might hope. We soon learn that Randy doesn’t exactly have an ideal degree of proverbial bedside manner, arriving on-site praying for a potential drug overdose to instead be a disturbing the peace matter so he can let the cops deal with it. Disgruntled, he assesses the OD victim while grilling a tagalong med student and then turning to the audience to remind us of our mortality. As dark as the humor on The Office could be, it never quite got to cut-to-black existential crisis levels of nervous laughter.
As director, Christopher Leone threads a fine needle with Code 3 between dark comedy and procedural drama in his depiction of EMS workers putting everything they have into their job. It also provides insights into hierarchies within the medical community and takes well-deserved jabs at a healthcare system that’s as disheveled as the psyche of our broken-down protagonist. This combination is best typified by a slow pan around a hospital, beginning with an arrogant surgeon played by Rob Riggle, which overlays the average salaries for everyone on staff and calls attention to how comparatively undercompensated paramedics are. Centered around three characters on the chaotic front lines, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the film can also at times resemble a war movie, specifically The Hurt Locker in a notable narrative parallel.
Along with tone-controlled direction and a trenchant script, the performances in Code 3 feel of a piece with the lived-in ethos of the engrossing project. Wilson does an outstanding job dappling drips of hopefulness upon the overwhelmingly cynical canvas that is his beleaguered tech’s mindset. Before roaring into a searing monologue aimed at everyone with whom he interacts on a daily basis, Randy asserts that he builds emotional walls not to keep people out but to keep all of the bad experiences in. Howery’s role doesn’t have as much dramatic heft and is more within the actor’s wheelhouse of comic relief but it’s certainly a welcome salve for the often intense proceedings. His hypothetical conversation as a Subway customer with would-be sandwich artist Randy isn’t quite the year’s funniest scene to invoke that ubiquitous eatery but it’s an easy second.
Score – 3.5/5
New movies coming this weekend:
Playing in theaters is Him, a sports horror film starring Tyriq Withers and Marlon Wayans, involving a young athlete as he descends into a world of terror when he’s invited to train with a legendary quarterback whose charisma curdles into something darker.
Also coming to theaters is A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, a romantic fantasy starring Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell, telling the imaginative tale of two strangers and the unbelievable journey that connects them.
Streaming on Hulu is Swiped, a tech biopic starring Lily James and Dan Stevens, centered around the life and career of entrepreneur Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder and former CEO of the online dating platform Bumble.
Reprinted by permission of Whatzup