‘Trust Me, I’m a Doctor’ Review: Kal Penn Plays Anna Nicole Smith’s Physician in a Moldy and Misguided Bio-Dramedy

It would have seemed safe to assume that public interest in anything related to Anna Nicole Smith has long since passed its sell-by date. But apparently not to the makers of the too-cutely titled new film about the legal travails of Smith’s former doctor, Sandeep Kapoor, who was charged with multiple crimes related to his treatment of the reality TV star after her 2007 death from a drug overdose at age 39. Based on Kapoor’s self-published memoir (that should have been a clue), Trust Me, I’m a Doctor feels like it’s arriving nearly two decades too late.

Written and directed by Thane Economou — whose sole previous feature credit, 2016’s The Wedding Party, is described in the press notes as “a rom-com filmed in one continuous 119-minute take” — the movie stars Kal Penn as the unfortunate doctor who got a bit carried away with his colorful new patient, played by Abbie Cornish (Bright Star). He became her friend and confidant, seduced by her fame and lifestyle. Attempting to explain himself, he asks, “Have you ever walked on a red carpet?”

Trust Me, I'm a Doctor

The Bottom Line Oy!

Release date: Friday, October 16
Cast: Kal Penn, Linda Hamilton, David Julian Harish, Abbie Cornish
Director-screenwriter: Thane Economou
Rated R, 1 hour 51 minutes

Kapoor was often photographed with her at various events and parties, most notably when he rode in her limo as part of a West Hollywood gay pride parade.

Beginning the story with a depiction of the police raid on Kapoor’s home that feels more than a little exaggerated in its rabid intensity, the story flashes back to chronicle his relationship with his patient as related during a discovery session with his attorney Ellyn Garofalo (a fine Linda Hamilton).

Economou frequently adopts a decidedly jokey approach, as if he’s aware that it would be hard to take seriously this story involving such outlandish real-life figures as Smith; photographer Larry Birkhead (Ted Jefferies), who filed a paternity suit against her over her daughter Dannielynn; Howard K. Stern (David Julian Hirsh), her lawyer, who co-starred with her in a reality TV show and who also claimed he was Dannielynn’s father; and Harvey Levin (Elon Gold), the founder of TMZ. Penn’s Kapoor narrates the proceedings, often breaking the fourth wall to address us directly. A tired running gag involves Stern’s name (“no, the other one,” characters point out to separate him from the radio show host).

Unfortunately, the film lacks the wit that made such similarly stylized true-life films as The Big Short so effective. It’s also very clunky, with background information ladled out via such things as fake TMZ segments and lawyer/client “sidebars” with all the finesse of Wikipedia entries. The tone is maddeningly inconsistent, straining for heartfelt emotion through such maudlin plot elements as Kapoor’s relationship with his parents, who were unaware that he was gay, and his friendship with a dying elderly female patient.

The whole story is so bizarre — the segment about Prince Frederic von Anhalt, Zsa Zsa Gabor’s ninth husband, who also claimed to be the father of Smith’s child, could easily be expanded into a feature film itself — that it exerts a certain morbid fascination. But the most interesting character onscreen, Smith, is given short shrift, despite a worthy performance by Cornish, in favor of concentrating on Kapoor, about whom it’s hard to care much about. And though Penn delivers a sensitive turn as the doctor so desperate for attention and validation that he made terrible mistakes in judgment, he’s unable to make the film feel like anything other than yet another sleazy attempt to capitalize on Smith’s notoriety.