This movie is about being true to oneself, and about finding the truth.
The story centers around two main characters, Winston and Claire. When we meet them, Winston is a second year resident in internal medicine at a modern city hospital in the United States. His fiancée, Claire, is the librarian in the hospital where he works.
Problems arise as Winston encounters patients that are considered “cured” of their disease but are becoming progressively more miserable. The patients experience a range of debilitating symptoms, despite the fact he is not able to find anything wrong with them (no tests can detect pathology). Winston is deeply troubled by this. It seems that the various surgeries and treatments have left his patients worse off, and he questions if orthodox medicine has the answers.
Claire tries, to no avail, to lift his spirits, and she begins to think there is something wrong with Winston. In her concern, Claire seeks council from a close girlfriend, Eileen, and during that conversation Claire begins to open up to a whole new way of relating.
The story of Winston and Claire unfolds as they both search for the answers to their dilemmas. Winston is determined to find fulfillment in his work and Claire wants to find out how to have meaningful relationships.
The movie opens with several scenes from the 1800’s, where we visit some of the scientists who established the foundations of modern medicine: Evolution (Darwin), Genetics (Mendel) and the Germ Theory (Pasteur). We are also introduced to Antoine Bechamps, who was a contemporary and rival of Pasteur, and whose research led to very different conclusions from those of the other gentlemen mentioned.
The movie is interesting and engaging, and presents exchanges of conversation and personal discoveries that challenge, stimulate and satisfy. It leaves you on a very upbeat and inspiring note.
The soundtrack complements the movie with a mixture of classical and contemporary jazz compositions, as well as an original love song at the end. The CD comes with the purchase of the movie, or you can buy it separately at our web store.
“The Empiricist” was the first feature by the production company, Phosphorus Alights, and was done on a very low budget (which led to some very innovative approaches in how it was made). The quality of the production reflects these two factors, but the quality of the story makes it a very worthwhile movie to see. You can find out more about this at phosphorusalights.com
A final note we want to add is we at Arbolis were involved with the making of “The Empiricist” in the following ways: Tracy provided some of the financing, and participated in the initial distribution of the movie.
In fact, participating in the distribution of the movie was instrumental in the eventual formation of Arbolis Trading Company.
