Flatliners Review: 3 Ups & 8 Downs

5. Character Logic Frequently Makes No Sense

One of the film's biggest issues is simply that it has very little psychological plausibility when it comes to its characters.

Yes, it's a silly scenario and some suspension of disbelief is to be expected, but here the characters frequently act in stupid ways that don't seem consistent with actual human behaviour.

For starters, the other medical students buy into Courtney's (Ellen Page) whole heart-stopping shtick way too quickly, and Diego Luna's sceptical Ray basically flip-flops throughout the film without much explanation, as though some crucial character development was cut in post-production.

Perhaps the film's dumbest moment comes when the gang decides to dispose of an incriminating laptop...but throwing it in the river. It's clearly done for emphatic visual effect, but when wiping the hard drive would've been sufficient, throwing away a perfectly good laptop seems mightily stupid.