‘Rounding’ Review: Modest Thriller Conjures Atmospheric but Convoluted Suspense in a Rural Hospital

Once considered the most disreputable of screen genres, horror has become so pervasive and popular that it’s not unusual now to see a movie presenting itself as such simply for the sake of commercial insurance. That seems the case with “Rounding,” a well-acted and atmospheric psychological thriller with Namir Smallwood as a medical resident who unravels in his new hospital placement. It’s got enough going on that the shoehorning of horror elements — including an eventual monster — feels gratuitous within a tricky narrative already over-compressed into an hour and a half.

Alex Thompson’s sophomore feature was actually made before last year’s acclaimed “Ghostlight,” though it’s only getting released well after a 2022 Tribeca Festival premiere. Doppelganger is distributing to U.S. theaters and on-demand platforms as of Feb. 14.

Working here sans his usual directing and writing partner Kelly O’Sullivan (though she plays a supporting role), Thompson establishes a compellingly ominous mood from the outset. Smallwood’s Dr. James Hayman is a very serious-minded recent med school graduate thought “brilliant” by colleagues at a major-city facility. Growing attached to a terminally ill elderly patient, he agrees to humanely end her pain, only to suffer a nervous breakdown after she panics and changes her mind, too late. Two months later, he remains jittery, but insists on a new posting rather than further time to recoup.

That gets him sent to Greenville, a sizable but less pressurized healthcare institution in a snowy midwestern backwater. Supervisor Dr. Harrison (Michael Potts) recognizes his abilities, but also notes that James — perhaps still semi-paralyzed by trauma — has a terribly stiff bedside manner that offers zero comfort when he must communicate grim diagnostic news. As a result, he’s ordered to attend an acting class, where students are instructed how to soften interactions with variously angry, frightened or confused patients. He bitterly resents that assignment, seeing it as stealing valuable time from his real work.

But James’ priorities soon become skewed on their own, as he grows obsessed with the case of Helen Adso (Sidney Flanigan from “Never Rarely Sometimes Always”). She’s a young local who keeps undergoing harsh procedures for respiratory failure, yet whose test results don’t appear to support such actions at all. He begins to suspect her belligerently protective mother (Rebecca Spence) is orchestrating these medical crises, for whatever twisted psychological or financial reasons. But the higher-ups dismiss those concerns. So James starts sneaking around, spying on the Adsos and playing detective in a none-too-subtle fashion. Nor is stealth aided by growing evidence of his own neglectful self-care: exhaustion, panic attacks, blackouts, a limp from unattended jogging injuries, eventually audio and visual hallucinations.

All of this is handled skillfully enough by the director. But his script (co-written with sibling Christopher Thompson) crams in too many red herrings and logic gaps for the story to bear. While Smallwood vividly conveys a complex, even tormented personality, we could use more explanatory backstory for James — periodic phone calls to his mother are so oddly fraught, we begin to wonder if he’s even talking to a live person.

The character’s erratic, irrational behavior escalates such that it’s baffling that fellow staff don’t force him into a mandatory rest leave. His psychological issues are so heightened yet murky, it comes off as pure conceptual overkill when he first hears, then finally “sees” a macabre creature of the id (designed by Ben Gojer). James’ mind is a scary enough place; “Rounding” needn’t drag in some hairy “Alien” substitute.

You can guess the filmmakers were aiming for something like the original “Jacob’s Ladder,” in which an unstable protagonist’s increasing distress materializes in his perception of the outer world. But those elements aren’t developed with sufficient care, and regardless, the suspense over what is or isn’t going on with Helen has greater interest. The writers whip up more potential complications than they spare the time to meaningfully explore, or to resolve satisfactorily.

The result plays well moment-to-moment, much abetted by Nate Hurtsellers’ somberly handsome cinematography, plus a diverse, expressive original score from Macie Stewart and Quinn Tsan. But its clutter of themes ultimately feels rushed, dissipating in a climactic twist and life-goes-on fadeout that both seem less than the buildup deserves. While many movies these days feel stretched too thin to sustain their few real ideas, “Rounding” emerges in the end as a project that ought to have shed some surplus ideas to better focus on a few. Either that, or the compact pacing should’ve been eased to allow them all more breathing space.